U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller
The United States on Tuesday welcomed an “amnesty” offer by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to Artsakh leaders during a scathing and threat-filled address he delivered in Lachin on May 28.
In addition to threatening Armenia, Aliyev also vowed more military aggression against Artsakh if its residents did not accept unconditional Azerbaijani rule.
“Everyone knows that we can carry out any [military] operation in that territory [Karabakh,]” Aliyev warned. “That is why the [Karabakh] parliament must be dissolved, the element who calls himself the president [of Karabakh] must surrender and all ministers, deputies and other officials must resign. Only then can there be talk of amnesty.”
The American support for Aliyev’s belligerent remarks was voiced during a State Department briefing on Tuesday, during which the newly-named spokesperson Matthew Miller, was hailing the progress made between Armenia and Azerbaijan ahead of scheduled talks in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova on Thursday.
“We are pleased to see that talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan have continued,” Miller said at a press briefing. “As Secretary Blinken said, peace is achievable in the South Caucasus. We recently expressed appreciation for Prime Minister Pashinyan’s commitment to peace, and we welcome President Aliyev’s recent remarks on consideration of amnesty.”
“Armenia and Azerbaijan’s leaders will meet later this week in Chisinau with our European partners, and we hope that will be a productive step to resolving these issues at the negotiating table and not through violence,” Miller added.
“Aggressive rhetoric can only perpetuate the violence of the past; constructive dialogue—both public and private—can create peace, opportunity, and hope. The United States stands ready to support the efforts of both parties to conclude a durable and dignified peace agreement,” Miller said.
Yerevan pushed back on Aliyev’s May 28 remarks, with the Armenia’s Foreign Ministry saying that the Azerbaijani leader not only threatened the Artsakh population with ethnic cleansing, but also threatened to launch new military attacks on Artsakh.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wondered whether Aliyev had decided to abandon the agreement they reached in Brussels on May 14 to recognize each other’s territorial integrity and work toward ensuring security for the Artsakh population.
The State Department’s assessment of Aliyev’s remarks angered both Armenia and Artsakh, whose foreign ministries in separate statements on Wednesday questioned whether the U.S. was supporting more military threats.
Yerevan urged Washington to react “more appropriately to such statements,” according to Armenia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Ani Badalian, who also pointed out that Aliyev’s remarks “contained clear threats” to Armenia’s territorial integrity.
“We believe that the encouragement of Baku’s destructive and belligerent policy runs counter to the desire to achieve positive developments in the peaceful settlement of the conflict,” said a statement issued by Artsakh’s foreign ministry.