“In connection with these claims that have nothing to do with reality, we consider it important to underline that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly mentioned intensive daily contacts with [Karabakh President] Arayik Harutiunian,” Pashinian’s press secretary, Nazeli Baghdasarian wrote on Facebook.
Baghdasarian also dismissed allegations that Azerbaijan’s eight-month blockade of Karabakh is now “off the agenda of the Armenian government.”
The “rumors” denied by her apparently include a weekend Facebook post by a prominent Armenian investigative journalist.
“I spoke today with two Artsakh officials,” wrote Edik Baghadasarian. “They were very upset not with the fact that food and medicine are running out but the fact that Armenian officials do not answer their phone calls anymore.”
A rift between Pashinian’s government and Karabakh’s leadership has steadily deepened ever since the Armenian premier stopped championing the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination more than a year ago.
Pashinian drew strong condemnation from the authorities in Stepanakert after he pledged in May to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh through an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty currently discussed by Yerevan and Baku.
“As for Armenia or various international bodies, I want to make clear that nobody can strip us of our right to self-determination, an international norm,” Harutiunian said last week.