Russia Says Armenians Added ‘Fuel To Fire’ In Azerbaijan Conflict

BARRON'S
Sept 23 2023
  • FROM AFP NEWS

Russia's top diplomat on Saturday accused Armenian leaders of worsening tensions but voiced hope the country would stay in Moscow's orbit following furor over Azerbaijan's recapture of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

Speaking at the United Nations, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov charged that Western powers were "pulling the strings" to undermine Russian influence but added, "unfortunately, the leadership of Armenia from time to time adds fuel to the fire itself."

Russian peacekeepers were deployed after a previous round of fighting in 2020 to monitor a ceasefire around Nagorno-Karabakh, which was run by ethnic Armenian separatists for decades.

Azerbaijani forces nonetheless swiftly seized the mountainous territory on Tuesday, despite earlier appeals by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the Kremlin to do more.

Protesters have rallied outside Russia's embassy in Yerevan, with some Armenians accusing Moscow of being distracted by its war in Ukraine.

Lavrov pointed to one senior Armenian politician who said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had handed Nagorno-Karabakh over to Azerbaijan following the 2020 fighting.

"It is ludicrous to accuse us of this," Lavrov said.

"There is a great number of similar politicians with a similar background there, but we are convinced that the Armenian people remember their history," he said.

He voiced confidence that Armenians would remain linked to "Russia and other friendly states in the region rather than those who swoop in from abroad."

A declaration signed in 1991 in Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty, then known as Alma-Ata, stated that existing borders of newly independent countries that had been Soviet republics were inviolable.

The declaration "meant that Nagorno-Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan — pure and simple as that," Lavrov said.

https://www.barrons.com/news/russia-says-armenians-added-fuel-to-fire-in-azerbaijan-conflict-f921148d

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS