Moscow responded to accusations from Yerevan: “It was not us, but Pashinyan who gave Karabakh to Azerbaijan”
Russia does not see anything good in Yerevan’s intention to conduct joint military exercises with the United States on Armenian territory amid statements that the country may leave the CSTO.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced this during a press conference following the G20 summit, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Of course, we don’t see anything good in the fact that aggressive NATO countries are trying to penetrate Transcaucasia. I don’t think this is good for anyone, including Armenia itself. Wherever the Americans appear (you know, they have hundreds of bases around the world), nowhere does this lead to any good. At best, they sit there quietly. But very often they try to “tailor” everything to themselves, including political processes,” Lavrov said.
He added that the actions of the Armenian leadership “are regrettable.”
“We talked about it. You mentioned the CSTO. Of course, the agreement that was announced – the Armenian-American exercises – looks all the more strange since Armenia has been refusing to participate in the Organization’s exercises for some time.
This is explained by the fact that if the CSTO, as a union entity with the participation of Armenia, had condemned Azerbaijan, then Armenia would have begun to “work” in the CSTO. When we ask: why do they communicate with Americans and Europeans who do not condemn Azerbaijan, they answer us that they are not their allies, therefore, they say, we should condemn.
Quite strange, simple logic. But I really hope that all the allied obligations that exist between us, we value them, will take effect and prevail in Armenia’s foreign policy,” hopes the Russian minister.
According to him, there are many politicians in Armenia who indulge in anti-Russian attacks.
“This didn’t start yesterday. But we also remember that when Mr. N.V. Pashinyan was still a politician “out of power” and “raising” the Armenian people, he then proclaimed withdrawal from the CSTO and the EAEU as one of his slogans.
Many attributed this simply to the election campaign and the fight for votes. Subsequently, Mr. N.V. Pashinyan did not express any such thoughts, including during the CSTO summit in Yerevan in 2022, where at the ministerial level we agreed on the mandate of the CSTO mission on the border of Armenia with Azerbaijan. Everything was endorsed. But in the morning, our Armenian colleagues decided to “postpone” this topic, says the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
He noted that before blaming Russia, “you need to evaluate your own actions,” recalling that the head of the Armenian parliament allowed himself to speak out in the sense that Russia “gave” Karabakh to Azerbaijan.
“It’s hard to imagine a more incorrect and dishonest statement. He referred to the fact that Karabakh was given by Russia to Azerbaijan when V.V. Putin, N.V. Pashinyan and I.G. Aliyev signed the first trilateral agreement on November 10, 2020. This is absolutely not true. It says nothing at all about the status of Karabakh. At that time, all three leaders proceeded from the fact that additional negotiations were still to be held on this issue.
But subsequently, in Prague, where both the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia were invited, they both signed a statement saying that they recognize the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration. The question is closed. The President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia signed a document according to which the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region is part of Azerbaijan. There is no need to accuse us of allegedly “giving away” Karabakh on November 10, 2020.
You have to answer for this to your people yourself,” Lavrov concluded.
Moscow responded to Yerevan's accusations: "It wasn't us, but Pashinyan, who gave Karabakh to Azerbaijan."