The interview of the Foreign Minister of Armenia to RFE/RL
Question: During the press conference with the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan in Moscow, the Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov expressed his surprise upon being informed about the non-participation of the Foreign Minister of Armenia in the trilateral meeting scheduled for December 23 from the press release of the Armenian side, but not through diplomatic channels. How would you comment on this?
Answer: And I express my surprise at the surprise of my esteemed colleague Sergey Lavrov. Taking into account the humanitarian crisis resulting from the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan, the request of the Armenian side to postpone my meeting with he Foreign Ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan scheduled in Moscow was forwarded by the Foreign Ministry of Armenia and the Embassy of Armenia in Russia to both representatives of the central apparatus of the Foreign Ministry of Russian Federation and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Armenia. Otherwise, it is inexplicable how the Foreign Ministry of Russia could announce that the Armenian side hadn’t departed to Moscow in its press release much earlier than the Foreign Ministry of Armenia announced about it and the reasons for it.
Question: Minister Lavrov’s speech expressed conviction that the incidents might be continuous in case if one of the parties refuses to participate in pre-agreed negotiations each time. In your opinion, how should this be perceived?
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Answer: The Armenian side has clearly indicated the reason and the necessity of postponing the meeting. The one can’t disagree that it is difficult to have constructive and productive meetings in the face of constant threats and ever-new manifestations of the use of force.
As for the conviction about further continuation of these manifestations, I believe that the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020 and the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh are meant to exclude exactly this kind of convictions..
Question: At the press conference with Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Bayramov stated that Armenia promised to “free” eight villages in November 2020, but failed to fulfil that arrangement. How would you comment on this one?
Answer: As we have repeatedly stated, the Armenian side did not undertake such commitment either under the November 9, 2020 Trilateral Statement or in any other way. Nothing but the written, signed and publicised agreements does exist.
We believe that by speaking about such fictitious agreements the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan attempts to justify his country’s continuous and flagrant violations of the provisions of November 9, 2020 Statement.
At the same time, I must remind that Armenia has repeatedly proposed the withdrawal of troops and the deployment of the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan along the administrative border between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republics.