Armenian FM accused of diplomatic posturing after meeting with Lavrov

Russian-Armenian negotiations were held in the Kazakh capital of Astana on October 12 led by their respective foreign ministers. During the joint press conference following the meeting, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan publicly accused Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) of its inaction while commending the EU for the operational organization of an observing mission, planned to be sent to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. to send Armenia to the border with Azerbaijan.

The minister continued by reading out a list of UN countries to his Russian colleague that has announced their “unambiguous position” regarding the military clashes at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in September.

It is worthwhile noting, that the Armenian state border with Iran and Turkey is being patrolled by the Russian military, with Russian peacekeepers being stationed in parts of the Azerbaijani Karabakh region, where a presence of Armenians exists. The aggressive diplomatic attacks on Moscow are happening amidst the Armenian government led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan trying to move closer to those of France and the USA.

Levon Zurabyan, the Vice President of the "Armenian National Congress" which is being led by former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, harshly criticized this approach to Armenian diplomacy following the meeting of the Foreign Ministers in Moscow.

“If we put aside the arrogant passage of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan [who, for some reason, approves of people who do not even distinguish effective diplomacy from the pleasing heart of Armenian public posturing], then the dry diplomatic result of the Mirzoyan-Lavrov meeting was published today, on October 13," Zurabyan posted on his social media accounts.

He further pointed his followers' attention to the following:

"Sergey Lavrov noted that immediately after the Armenian to the CSTO, it convened a summit and sent the Secretary-General and the Chief of Staff of the organization to Armenia, who proposed to send a monitoring mission to the border region of Armenia with Azerbaijan for a period of a month or more. This mission did not happen solely due to Armenia’s incapability to "find time for the holding of a session of the CSTO, which is currently chaired by the country”.

Mirzoyan responded to Lavrov by arguing that Yerevan did try to call a meeting of the CSTO but blamed the schedules of the participating countries schedules for it not happening".

The Russian minister reacted to this, by stating that they did not receive any suggestions regarding clear dates for such a meeting and that the Russians are ready at any point to hold such a session online.

In explaining this contradiction, Zurabyan suggests two possible scenarios of how things truly happened:

First scenario: Armenia initiated a meeting of the CSTO a month ago with an agenda to send a monitoring mission, but the CSTO did not respond to the initiative. Mirzoyan did not disclose this. Whether this really happened or not could be easily proven if the appropriate documents were to be presented.

Second scenario: Yerevan did not initiate such a meeting, which gives the CSTO the opportunity to accuse the Armenian Chairman of the Organization of unacceptable passivity.

“Whatever the case, we are again faced with the diplomatic incompetence and defeat of Armenia, which makes it even more confusing why supporters of Pashinyan are satisfied with Mirzoyans’ behaviour," Zurabyan wrote.

Vestnik Kavkaza