Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Armenia Warns Of ‘New Azeri Aggression’
Nagorno-Karabakh - A Russian roadblock outside Stepanakert, December 24, 2022.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan on Wednesday of preparing the ground for another
attack on Nagorno-Karabakh with false claims about shipments of Armenian
military personnel and weapons to Karabakh.
It urged the international community to send a fact-finding mission to Karabakh
and the Lachin corridor in order to prevent Baku from launching the “new
aggression.”
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry threatened to take “resolute” actions on Tuesday
two days after a shootout outside Stepanakert left three Karabakh Armenian
police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead. The ministry repeated its
claims that its soldiers came under fire as they tried to check a Karabakh
police vehicle allegedly smuggling weapons from Armenia.
The Karabakh police strongly denies that, saying that the vehicle transported
only policemen and was ambushed by Azerbaijani special forces. The Russian
peacekeepers have essentially confirmed that.
In another statement issued later on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry in Baku
accused the peacekeepers of escorting a convoy of Armenian and Karabakh military
trucks along a dirt road running parallel to a section of the Lachin corridor
blocked by Azerbaijani protesters since December.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry swiftly denied the allegations. The Armenian Foreign
Ministry likewise insisted the following morning that Yerevan did not use the
corridor for any military supplies both before and during the three-month
blockade.
No Armenian army units are stationed in Karabakh, read a ministry statement. It
said Baku is “trying to create false information grounds for launching a new
aggression not only against Nagorno-Karabakh but also the Republic of Armenia.”
The Azerbaijani government also renewed its demands for an Azerbaijani
checkpoint on the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Yerevan rejected
these demands earlier, saying that they run counter to the terms of the
Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also objected to the checkpoint when he
visited Baku last week. He suggested that the Russian peacekeepers use
“technical means” to dispel Azerbaijan’s “suspicions that the corridor is not
functioning as intended.”
Ex-President Sees No Alternative To Armenia’s Alliance With Russia
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Former President Serzh Sarkisian (right) attends the presentation of
his book, Yerevan, March 7, 2023.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian insisted late on Tuesday that Armenia has no
choice but to remain allied to Russia even if it does not get enough support
from Moscow.
Sarkisian blamed the current Armenian government for recent months’ friction
between the two countries.
“I’ve never been pro-Russian and never will be, but I continue believe that the
Russian Federation is our best ally because there is no alternative,” he told
journalists.
“Will NATO set up a base here?” he said. “Will any European country have a
[military] contingent in Karabakh? You know very well that I have never been
anti-European. My rebuke is directed not at NATO or the European Union but at
those adventurists who are trying, for some reason, to mess up everything here.”
Armenia’s traditionally close relationship with Russia has soured lately because
of what Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration sees as a lack of
Russian support in the continuing conflict with Azerbaijan. Yerevan has also
accused Russian peacekeepers of doing little to lift the Azerbaijani blockade of
the Lachin corridor.
Moscow has denied that. It has also rejected Pashinian’s recent claim that the
Russian military presence in Armenia may be putting the South Caucasus country’s
security and territorial integrity at greater risk.
These tensions have fuelled speculation about a pro-Western change in Armenia’s
geopolitical orientation planned by Pashinian. Armenia’s leading opposition
groups are against such a policy change. One of them, the Pativ Unem bloc, is
led by Sarkisian.
The ex-president, who ruled the country from 2008-2018, spoke to the press
during the presentation of his new book containing a collection of his past
speeches and statements on the Karabakh conflict.
Sarkisian again blamed the current government for Armenia’s defeat in the 2020
war with Azerbaijan and reiterated opposition allegations that the Armenian side
will suffer more military and diplomatic losses if Pashinian remains in power.
He claimed that Pashinian is too incompetent to be taken seriously by Azerbaijan
or even international mediators.
U.S. Rules Out Sanctions On Baku Over Karabakh Blockade
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - U.S. envoy Louis Bono (left) at a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian, Yerevan, March 7, 2023.
The United States is not considering imposing sanctions on Azerbaijan over its
continuing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh’s sole land link with Armenia, a senior
U.S. diplomat said late on Tuesday.
“This is not a time for sanctions,” Louis Bono, the new U.S. envoy for the South
Caucasus, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “I am here to work with both parties
to lead them towards peace. Sanctions would be counterproductive. It’s not even
under consideration at this point.”
Washington has repeatedly called on Baku to lift the road blockade that led to a
humanitarian crisis in Karabakh. According to the U.S. State Department,
Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted on the restoration of “free and open
commercial and private transit through the Lachin corridor” when he hosted talks
between Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders in Munich on February 18.
The Azerbaijani side has dismissed such calls also made by the European Union
and Russia, claiming that the lifeline road was not blocked by Azerbaijani
government-backed protesters on December 12.
“We will continue to press this matter,” Bono said at the end of a trip to
Yerevan during which he met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other
Armenian officials.
The U.S. diplomat held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku
earlier this week.
He arrived in the Azerbaijani capital on Sunday hours after a shootout in
Karabakh left three Karabakh Armenian police officers and two Azerbaijani
soldiers dead. The conflicting sides blamed each other for the incident that
occurred four days after a meeting between Azerbaijani and Karabakh officials
organized by Russian peacekeepers.
During that meeting, the Karabakh representatives refused to discuss the
Armenian-populated territory’s “integration” into Azerbaijan demanded by Baku.
Asked whether Washington could also arrange contacts between Baku and
Stepanakert, Bono said: “Our role in this process is not to serve as a mediator.
We are not here to impose language, conditions on any of the parties. What we
are trying to do is to facilitate a peace. What I mean by that is that we want
the parties to develop the language, the conditions, to accept them together.
They need to work this out amongst themselves.”
The envoy also noted that Karabakh should be part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
peace process.
“In order to have a peace agreement that is going to be sustainable, durable and
balanced, it has to include Nagorno-Karabakh, and we are committed to seeing
this through,” he said. “We recognize the importance of that.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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