Armenia’s government did not react on Thursday to an apparent Russian warning not to withdraw from the November 2020 ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh or other Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday that those agreements remain “the basis for Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation.” She said she has not seen statements by senior Armenian officials calling them null and void or withdrawing Yerevan’s signature from them.
“Attempts to question them are extremely dangerous and could create a vacuum of mutual obligations between the parties in the context of their still unsettled bilateral relations,” Zakharova added in a clear warning to the Armenian leadership.
It followed a fresh war of words between Yerevan and Moscow triggered by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s claims that the Armenian side is refusing to open a transport corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave in breach of Paragraph 9 of the 2020 truce accord.
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The Armenian Foreign Ministry hit back at Lavrov, saying he knows full well that all provisions of that accord have been “irrevocably violated.” It seemed to allude to Russia’s failure to prevent or thwart Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military operation that restored Azerbaijani control over Karabakh and displaced its ethnic Armenian population. Also, Russian peacekeepers deployed in Karabakh did not intervene after Baku blocked in November 2022 the Lachin corridor connecting the region to Armenia.
The ministry declined to clarify on Thursday whether Yerevan is planning to pull out of the ceasefire deal or follow-up agreements reached in Moscow. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has signaled no such plans so far even though he stated in May that “none of the points of the tripartite statement of November 9 [2020] is implemented today.”
“None of the points of the statement has been put into practice, but I think that it would be wrong to withdraw our signature,” said Hovik Aghazarian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. He said Baku could use that as a pretext to attack Armenia.
Artur Khachatrian, a lawmaker representing the opposition Hayastan alliance, said the Armenian government should not scrap the ceasefire deal in order to be able to assert the Karabakh Armenians’ “collective right to return” to their homeland.
“Everyone except Nikol Pashinian and Ilham Aliyev talks about that,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “That document must be revisited only in the context of the Artsakh people’s right to return.”
Lavrov’s statement fueled speculation in Armenia that Moscow is again pressuring Yerevan to open the land corridor sought by Baku. The top Russian diplomat made it on August 19 as Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Azerbaijan and offered to help broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. Putin telephoned Pashinian and Aliyev after his state visit.