YEREVAN — Armenian Overseas Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has dismissed criticism from Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov over canceled talks with Azerbaijan, insisting that the Russian facet was duly knowledgeable about his request for the “postponement” of a trilateral assembly of international ministers earlier this week.
The Armenian Overseas Ministry introduced on December 22 that Mirzoyan “postponed” the talks with Lavrov and Azerbaijani Overseas Minister Ceyhun Bayramov, slated for December 23, as a result of his prime precedence now was to assist reopen the world often called the Lachin Hall.
The only real street connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia was blocked on December 12 by a gaggle of Azerbaijani protesters demanding that Baku be allowed to examine Karabakh ore mines, calling consideration to what Azerbaijan says is the unlawful mining in Nagorno-Karabakh and using the street to move the minerals to Armenia.
The authorities in Yerevan and Stepanakert have condemned the blockade as a gross violation of the 2020 cease-fire settlement that positioned the Lachin Hall beneath the management of Russian peacekeepers.
At a joint information convention with Bayramov in Moscow on December 23, Lavrov expressed his “shock” over the truth that they realized about Armenia’s refusal to come back for the talks from an announcement by the Armenian Overseas Ministry’s press service.
“No diplomatic channels, that are normally utilized in such instances, have been used,” he mentioned, including that “this technique of the Armenian facet is elevating questions.”
Lavrov mentioned that Russian peacekeepers who’re deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh and alongside the Lachin Hall beneath the phrases of the 2020 cease-fire are “working actually hourly to resolve the scenario.”
“Such incidents, that are inevitable in any battle and which after all should be thought-about and addressed promptly, will last more and longer if one of many events walks away from agreed rounds of negotiations after each such incident. This has by no means benefited anybody,” the highest Russian diplomat added.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on December 24, Mirzoyan expressed shock over the response of the Russian facet.
“I additionally specific my shock on the shock of my esteemed colleague Sergei Lavrov,” Mirzoyan mentioned.
“Making an allowance for the humanitarian disaster brought on by Azerbaijan’s unlawful blockade of the Lachin Hall, the request of the Armenian facet for a postponement of the assembly between me and the international ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan scheduled in Moscow was forwarded by the Armenian Overseas Ministry and the Armenian Embassy in Russia to each representatives of the central equipment of the Russian Overseas Ministry and the embassy of the Russian Federation in Armenia,” Mirzoyan mentioned.
“In any other case, it’s inexplicable how the Russian Overseas Ministry may announce the nondeparture of the Armenian facet to Moscow in its press launch a lot sooner than the Armenian Overseas Ministry would have time to announce about it and the explanations for it,” he added.
Talking at a joint information convention with Lavrov, Azerbaijan’s Bayramov accused Armenia of failing to honor its dedication at hand over to Azerbaijan eight villages that was once Azerbaijani enclaves within the territory of Soviet Armenia.
Nevertheless, the 9 factors of the doc signed by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to finish a 44-day conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020 include no reference to such a dedication, Mirzoyan mentioned.
“As we have now acknowledged many occasions, the Armenian facet didn’t undertake such a dedication both beneath the November 9, 2020, trilateral assertion or in some other approach. There isn’t a settlement aside from that written, signed, and printed,” Mirzoyan mentioned.
“We deem that by speaking about such fictitious agreements the international minister of Azerbaijan is making an attempt to justify his nation’s steady and gross violations of the provisions of the November 9, 2020, assertion.
“On the similar time, I think about it essential to remind that Armenia has repeatedly proposed the withdrawal of troops and the deployment of the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan alongside what was the executive border between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist republics,” the Armenian minister concluded.
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of capturing dozens of sq. kilometers of sovereign Armenian territory in a sequence of incursions since Might 2021. Azerbaijan denies the accusation.
Almost 300 troopers have been killed on each side in two-day border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in September, which proved to be the deadliest Armenian-Azerbaijani preventing for the reason that 2020 conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed the lives of near 7,000 individuals.
