Azatutyun.am. Russia has again urged Armenia to agree to resume Russian-mediated negotiations with Azerbaijan and stop pinning its hopes on the West.
In televised remarks publicized on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin insisted that there is “no alternative” to Russian mediation of Armenian-Azerbaijan peace talks.
“It is under the auspices of Russia, at the initiative of President Vladimir Putin that the foundations of the settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan were laid,” Galuzin told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
“We hope that they will realize in Yerevan that the implementation of the trilateral [Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] agreements, rather than efforts to involve extra-regional powers, notably the U.S. and the European Union, is the most reliable path to the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization,” he said.
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In recent months, Moscow has repeatedly offered to host high-level Armenian-Azerbaijani talks in an effort to regain the initiative in the negotiation process. The Russian Foreign Ministry rebuked the Armenian leadership in December for ignoring these offers. It warned that Yerevan’s current preference of Western mediation may spell more trouble for the Armenian people.
The ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in late January Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has again been invited to visit Moscow to discuss a potential peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Mirzoyan has announced no plans for such a visit or a trilateral meeting with his Russian and Azerbaijani counterparts.
Yerevan hoped, at least until now, that an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty will be brokered by the U.S. and/or the EU.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled meetings with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian which the EU planned to host in October. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov similarly withdrew from a November meeting with Mirzoyan in Washington. Baku accused the Western powers of pro-Armenian bias.
Galuzin reiterated Russian claims that the West’s main regional goal is to “squeeze Russia out of the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement, break up the existing balance of forces in the South Caucasus and thus create another source of instability near Russia’s borders.” He also said Moscow is “always ready to provide a platform for Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on the peace treaty.”
Russian-Armenian relations have steadily deteriorated since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, with Yerevan accusing Moscow of not honoring security commitments to its longtime regional ally. Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh last September only added to those tensions.