The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the Russian claims are “causing bewilderment and disappointment” in Yerevan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday that the blockade and the resulting humanitarian crisis in the Armenian-populated region are a “consequence of Armenia’s recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of the territory of Azerbaijan.” She pointed to joint statements to that effect that were adopted by Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at their talks organized by the European Union in October 2022 and May 2023.
The statement issued as a result of the 2022 summit in Prague upheld a December 1991 declaration in which Armenia, Azerbaijan and other newly independent Soviet republics recognized each other’s Soviet-era borders.
In an extensive written response to Moscow, Zakharova’s Armenian opposite number, Ani Badalian, insisted that “nothing new was decided at Prague” as Aliyev and Pashinian simply reaffirmed their countries’ compliance with the Almaty Declaration.
Pashinian has repeatedly made a similar point. His political opponents and other critics argue, however, that the Armenian parliament ratified the declaration in February 1992 with serious reservations relating to Karabakh.
Badalian said Russia itself has “repeatedly recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.” She also repeated Yerevan’s complains about the Russian peacekeepers’ failure to stop Azerbaijan from blocking traffic through the Lachin corridor
Pashinian likewise hit out at the peacekeepers as he opened a weekly session of his cabinet in Yerevan on Thursday. He said that Azerbaijan is continuing its “genocidal policy” against Karabakh’s population “in the presence of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.”
The bitter recriminations underscore Russia’s deepening rift with Armenia resulting in large measure from what Yerevan sees as a lack of Russian support in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
Badalian pointed out that Moscow ignored an Armenian request for military assistance made when Azerbaijan launched offensive military operations along Armenia’s borders last September. The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the Azerbaijani “aggression” began just days after Baku rejected a Russian peace plan that would indefinitely delay agreement on Karabakh’s status. Yerevan backed that plan in August 2022, according to her.