Aliyev again threatened the Karabakh Armenians with military action on Sunday, warning that they must dissolve their government bodies and unconditionally accept Azerbaijani rule. “Only then can there be talk of amnesty,” he said.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, on Tuesday welcomed Aliyev’s “remarks on consideration of amnesty.”
The Karabakh foreign ministry said the U.S. reaction caused “deep disappointment and bewilderment” in Stepanakert and amounted to the endorsement of “Baku’s unconstructive and bellicose policy.”
“It is inexplicable how one can find any positive element worthy of encouragement in the Azerbaijani president’s statement, which is totally based on open blackmail and coercion,” the ministry said in a statement issued on Wednesday night.
It said Aliyev made clear that he will not engage in an “equal dialogue” with the authorities in Stepanakert and is only keen to forcibly impose Azerbaijani rule on them.
Armenia likewise expressed dismay at the U.S. praise of Aliyev’s remarks. The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan said they “contained clear threats” to the security of Karabakh’s population and Armenia’s territorial integrity.
Armenian opposition leaders and other critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian also denounced the State Department’s perceived pro-Azerbaijani stance. They said it was made possible by Pashinian’s recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
“The fact that Washington ignores Azerbaijan's intensifying aggression and reacts to the covert Azerbaijani blackmail in a positive light is absolutely unacceptable and fraught with severe consequences,” Tigran Abrahamian, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Pativ Unem bloc, said on Thursday.
Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian claimed, for his part, that the State Department added “another drop” to “humiliations” which he said the Armenians have endured during Pashinian’s rule.
“One of the world’s most corrupt and authoritarian leaders promises to grant amnesty to the elected representatives of people who have lived in their historical homeland for millennia … and have never been part of an independent Azerbaijan. And the U.S. welcomes that step?” Oskanian wrote on Facebook.
“The United States should not be blamed. There is only one culprit here: the current authorities of Armenia,” he charged, calling, for the first time, for Pashinian’s removal from power.
As well as praising Aliyev’s offer of “amnesty” to the Karabakh leaders, the State Department spokesman also said that “aggressive rhetoric can only perpetuate the violence of the past.”
