Armenia stubbornly denies its military presence in Garabagh - Russia

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s September 24, 2023, address contains “unacceptable attacks against Russia and causes rejection,” the Russian Foreign Ministry has said in a statement.

“There is an attempt to abdicate responsibility for failures in domestic and foreign policy, shifting the blame to Moscow. Pashinyan’s latest views confirm our earlier conclusions that the processes inspired by the West and encouraged by Yerevan, destructive for our own country and our allied relations, are not episodic, but systemic,” Caliber.Az reports, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement.

“Pashinyan, in fact, admitted that all this time the country was being deliberately prepared for a turn away from Russia. The steps, designed to set a new Western vector for the development of Armenia, are unconvincingly justified by alleged mistakes of the Russian Federation and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). It is forgotten that our countries have similar interests in security and development, while the US and other NATO member states intended not only to inflict strategic damage on Russia, but also to destabilise our common Eurasian space,” the statement said.

According to the statement, Russia has always been faithful to its allied obligations, respected Armenian statehood and never made the country choose to be with us or against us. Moscow has rendered and continues rendering large-scale assistance to fraternal Armenia in security, economics and culture. The efforts of the Russian Federation and Russian President Vladimir Putin personally made it possible to prevent Armenia’s complete defeat in autumn 2020. If Pashinyan had agreed to a truce weeks earlier, the loss would have been less severe.

“Finally, the selfless activity of Russian peacekeepers in `Nagorno-Garabagh’ (Garabagh region of Azerbaijan), sometimes at the cost of their own lives, is a direct confirmation of Russia’s continuing commitment to fulfilling its extremely difficult mission in the interests of achieving peace between the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples. Pashinyan remained silent about this issue,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“Our country, despite frequent signals about the creation of artificial difficulties for Russian companies in the country, is invariably pursuing a course of intensifying economic and investment ties with Armenia both bilaterally and within the Eurasian Economic Union. Today they demonstrate record dynamics, contributing to the impressive growth of the Armenian economy and the well-being of citizens,” the statement reads.

“Russia firmly stands in favour of strengthening a common cultural and educational platform with Armenia, despite the attempts of some Armenian representatives to slow down the progress of mutually beneficial projects in the humanitarian sphere,” the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

“Instead of complying with the gentleman’s agreement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia dated November 2020 to leave the issue of the status of `Nagorno-Garabagh’ to the future generations, Pashinyan was persuaded by the West in regional affairs. He decided to act in Prague and Brussels in accordance with the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, recognising Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over `Nagorno-Garabagh’,” the statement added.

“This fundamentally changed the conditions under which the trilateral statement dated November 10, 2020 was signed, as well as the position of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. It was impossible to implement a number of agreements on strengthening Armenia’s security due to the short-sightedness of the Armenian leadership. In particular, Pashinyan did not sign the decision already agreed upon by all foreign ministers of six countries to send a CSTO observation mission to the country’s districts bordering Azerbaijan,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

According to the statement, the situation was also aggravated by Yerevan’s persistent denial of its military presence in Garabagh after November 9, 2020, which became one of the key reasons for the latest September escalation. The agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian peacekeepers on September 20 on the withdrawal of the remaining Armenian units and the complete disarmament of the “Nagorno-Garabagh Defence Army”, as well as the removal of heavy equipment and weapons revealed the real situation and created the preconditions for sustainable de-escalation.

“As a result of the inconsistent position of the Armenian leadership, which preferred the West instead of rhythmic work together with Russia and Azerbaijan, the implementation of several trilateral agreements for 2020-2022 at the highest level has stalled. Precious time was lost, during which significant progress could have been made in terms of agreeing on a peace treaty, delimiting the border and restoring regional routes, which would have become additional security factors for Armenia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

According to the statement, by recognising Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, the Armenian prime minister did not remember the rights and security of the Garabagh Armenians at the aforementioned Prague and Brussels meetings under the EU auspices. Even today we do not see Yerevan’s interest in assisting to solve pressing problems in Garabagh, namely, creation of favourable conditions for observing the ceasefire regime, improvement of the humanitarian situation, and establishment of a sustainable dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert (Khankandi).

“This irresponsible approach of Pashinyan’s team caused discontent among some representatives of the Armenian society, which was evident during the rallies. Of course, allegations that they were inspired by Russia are unreal,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“The head of the Armenian government should be well aware that Moscow does not deal with such things as opposed to the West, which is quite skilled in organising “colour revolutions”, but by a strange coincidence preferred not to notice the numerous facts of persecution of protesters by the authorities in Yerevan. At the same time, the US ambassador has close relations with the government. A real anti-Russian bacchanalia instigated by the authorities has been observed in the Armenian media,” the statement said.

“We are convinced that Yerevan’s leadership is making a huge mistake, deliberately trying to destroy the multifaceted and centuries-old ties between Armenia and Russia and making the country a hostage to the West’s geopolitical games. We are confident that the overwhelming majority of the Armenian population is also aware of this,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.