The crisis around Karabakh. Provocations of Yerevan against Moscow
The ruling liberal elite in Armenia is trying with all its might to disavow the role of Russia and its peacekeepers both in Karabakh and in the South Caucasus as a whole, thereby justifying its plan to withdraw from the CSTO and break away from the EAEU.
In fact, for pro-Western Yerevan, the blocking of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijani “ecologists” and “civil activists” has become a real gift, which is now being actively used to fan anti-Russian sentiments within Armenia and justify its activities aimed at further distancing itself from Moscow.
This was clearly expressed on the last day of the informal summit of the CIS heads of state in St. Petersburg on December 27, when Nikol Pashinyan, at the beginning of a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, complained that for twenty days the Lachin corridor had allegedly not been under the control of Russian peacekeepers and asked to discuss possible solutions to the situation.
In response, Vladimir Vladimirovich reasonably noted that at the summit, the three of us still managed to talk with Pashinyan and Aliyev a day earlier.
“You and I started talking yesterday, the three of us managed to talk. As agreed, we will discuss all these issues in detail,” the Russian President noted.
And before that, there was real information hysteria coming from Yerevan for five days, aimed at discrediting Moscow’s diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation in the region. Thus, on December 22, at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan openly stated that Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh had completely failed in their duties. Moreover, by their inaction they allegedly nullify the peace agreement concluded in November 2020 with the participation of Russia.
“According to the sixth point of the statement, the Lachin corridor is under the control of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan guarantees the safety of the movement of citizens, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin corridor,” Pashinyan said.
In his opinion, the duty to “keep the Lachin corridor under control” is not fulfilled.
“Of course, this is happening as a result of the illegal actions of Azerbaijan, but this does not change the situation, because the main goal of the presence of Russian peacekeeping forces is to prevent such lawlessness,” the Armenian prime minister noted.
Apparently Pashinyan and Co. wanted Russian soldiers to start shooting at demonstrators, even if they were provocateurs, and as a result, blood would be shed? Then Moscow, instead of a super-arbiter, would become a participant in the conflict on the side of defeatist Yerevan and would be drawn into an open confrontation with Baku and Ankara. Maybe this is exactly what the Western authors of this scenario were trying to achieve during these days.
It is noteworthy that, simultaneously with the blocking of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh by Azerbaijani “ecologists,” Armenian “activists” from the nationalist PDP unexpectedly set out to block the Russian 102 base in Gyumri, already on the territory of Armenia and responsible for the security of the RA borders with Turkey. The main demands of the pro-government Nazis are the republic’s withdrawal from the CSTO.
It is interesting that almost with the beginning of this crisis in the Lachin corridor, official Yerevan also “unexpectedly” refused to continue military-technical cooperation with the CSTO countries, that is, primarily with Russia. This cannot be called an accident - just such a step looks like preparing the basis for the country’s withdrawal from the defensive association.
Therefore, this commotion with the corridor and the attempt to block the Russian base in Gyumri was necessary for Pashinyan and liberal pro-Western circles as a justification for further breaking off relations with Moscow and pushing through the Western, that is, American, version of the peace agreement without Russia’s participation.
This confirms the fact that Yerevan was initially not interested in resolving this crisis with the Lachin corridor and unblocking Artsakh, but on the contrary, deliberately inflated it. Therefore, already on December 23, the day after Pashinyan’s anti-Russian statement at a government meeting, the Armenian authorities simply refused to participate in a trilateral meeting in Moscow with the heads of the Foreign Ministries of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan on precisely this issue.
Commenting on this situation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted:
“Yerevan did not use any diplomatic channels to inform Moscow of its refusal to participate in the negotiations. And this method of the Armenian side raises questions.”
He also defended the Russian peacekeepers, saying that “the military operates in difficult conditions and is guided by the procedures enshrined in tripartite agreements.”
Further more. Already on December 26, just when the first day of the meeting of the informal summit of the CIS heads of state was taking place in St. Petersburg, Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan made a provocative statement on Public Television in Armenia. Allegedly, the Kremlin, through the crisis with the Lachin corridor and the escalation of the conflict with Baku, is persuading Yerevan to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
“Armenia continues to resist this. By the way, I can clearly say that the escalation of September 13 is connected with this, and basically this is the basis or motive of the entire crisis. Every time Armenian democracy and the democratic system resists this, it receives other types of pressure in the form of military force,” noted Armen Grigoryan, directly blaming Russia for all of its latest troubles.
Among other things, the Russian authorities are thus allegedly lobbying for the launch of the Zangezur corridor, which will cut the territory of Armenia and connect Azerbaijan with Turkey.
Thus, they want to present the planned surrender of Artsakh and the signing of the shameful capitulation agreements with Baku, concluded with Aliyev back in October in Prague through the mediation of Macron, as a forced measure carried out under pressure from Moscow!
It is obvious that Grigoryan was only an executor of the will of the ruling liberal group and voiced what was prepared for him in advance by Pashinyan and the Anglo-Saxons. This demarche was supposed to show everyone in the world, and even within Armenia itself, the absence of any common binding motives for the further development of cooperation and integration, as well as the fact that all decisions within the framework of associations in the post-Soviet space are allegedly pushed through by the Kremlin through such military conflicts and blocking.
True, the head of the RA Security Council did not provide any confirmation of his words, except for references to some wishes of the Ambassador of Belarus, and immediately received sharp answers both from Moscow and from Yerevan itself.
This is how, in particular, on December 27, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, reacted harshly:
“Such statements can be considered provocative. They are not true. None of the Russian officials said this or conveyed this to the Armenian side through anyone.”
Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan also spoke negatively about Grigoryan’s fabrications, noting that no one had ever conducted such negotiations.
“I have not witnessed a single such conversation with our Russian colleagues. There are no such conversations and there cannot be for me. The independence and sovereignty of Armenia are non-negotiable. I couldn’t help but know about such conversations if they existed,” Simonyan said.
Already on December 28, a demonstration took place in Yerevan, and then a rally near the government building, organized by the youth wing of the opposition party Dashnaktsutyun. The protesters demanded decisive action from the authorities to unblock Artsakh, while blaming Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan himself for the current situation.
Protest demonstration in Yerevan on December 28
Police guard the government building
“The document dated November 9 was signed by Nikol Pashinyan himself. Armenia is responsible for the fate of its 120 thousand citizens, therefore, you need to remind them that you are obliged to solve these problems. You cannot constantly say that the Russians, the Karabakh people, the former, the oppositionists are to blame, and avoid your mission and responsibility,” said Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a leader of this party.
The protesters openly pointed out that high-ranking officials in the RA government are simply trying to “wash their hands” of Karabakh and hand over their compatriots, and the current crisis was called a game by Pashinyan and Aliyev to draw new lines of demarcation within the framework of those agreements with the participation of the West, reached behind the backs of the people in Prague.
And here the protesters really hit the mark, since it is obvious that this blocking of the Lachin corridor was only a cover operation for the liquidation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and breaking through the Azerbaijani-Turkish transport route through the territory of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, before and during the crisis, Yerevan’s contacts with Washington and London intensified in an unprecedented way.
Thus, the same head of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan repeatedly telephoned US Presidential Adviser on National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan, and on December 16, Richard Moore, head of the British secret service MI6, unexpectedly flew to Yerevan, meeting behind closed doors with Nikol Pashinyan. It is obvious that intensive negotiations were underway to formalize a deal with Azerbaijan in order to achieve the final victory of the “Turkic world” in the region.
Interestingly, after this visit by the head of British intelligence and negotiations with the adviser to the American president, a new secret Armenian draft proposal for a peace agreement with Baku suddenly appeared, which was sent by Pashinyan to Aliyev. At the same time, the Armenian prime minister himself, during the height of the blockade of the Lachin corridor, said that he was confident of a positive reaction from the Azerbaijani president.
Moscow, in Lavrov’s words, then diplomatically noted that it was in favor of any such bilateral negotiations that could lead to peace. But in reality, we see a real game with the goal of squeezing Russia out of Karabakh and the South Caucasus, and this is why such provocations were needed to justify Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Artsakh and the liquidation of the Russian base in Gyumri.
At the same time, Yerevan is rapidly introducing amendments to the law on martial law, which can be used to suppress already pro-Russian opposition groups and parties in Armenia itself. Thus, political scientist Angela Elibegova states:
“If during the war of 2020 we were called to the police to force us to delete statuses that deviate from the official line, now they will simply turn us off and take away our means of communication.”
That is, it is possible that in the event that an end is put in the history of Artsakh, and the republic and its population are surrendered to Baku, martial law may be declared in Armenia and mass arrests of oppositionists may be carried out, banning protest movements and parties. In this way, the greatest national treason in the history of the Armenian people is being prepared, which can only lead to an unprecedented catastrophe.
Karabakh Crisis : Yerevan's Provocations Against Moscow