Moscow: In regional affairs, Pashinyan, instead of observing  gentleman`s agreement on NK status, succumbed to West`s instructions

ArmInfo.The message of  Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on independence dated September 24, 2023 contains unacceptable attacks against Russia and cannot  cause anything other than rejection. This is stated in a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.

"There is an attempt to remove responsibility for failures in  domestic and foreign policy, shifting the blame to Moscow.  Pashinyan's latest claims confirm our earlier conclusions that  processes inspired by the West and spurred on by official Yerevan  that are destructive for country itself and our allied relations are  not episodic, but systemic.

The head of government, in fact, admitted that all this time the  republic was being deliberately prepared for a turn away from Russia.  Their steps, designed to set a new, Western  vector for the  development of Armenia, are unconvincingly justified by alleged  mistakes of the Russian Federation and the CSTO. At the same time, it  is forgotten that our states have largely similar interests in  matters of security and development, and the United States and other  NATO countries have set as their goal not only to inflict strategic  damage on Russia, but also to destabilize our common Eurasian space,"  the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed conviction.

Official Moscow emphasized that Russia has always been faithful to  its allied obligations, respected Armenian statehood and never  confronted the republic with a choice: "with us or against us." The  Russian Foreign Ministry added that Moscow has provided and continues  to provide large-scale assistance to fraternal Armenia in the areas  of security, economics and culture. In this vein, the department  again recalled that in the fall of 2020, the efforts of the Russian  Federation and President Vladimir Putin personally made it possible  to prevent the complete defeat of Armenia.

"If Pashinyan had agreed to a truce weeks earlier, the loss would  have been less severe. Finally, the selfless work of Russian  peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK), sometimes at the cost of their  own lives, is a direct confirmation of Russia's continued commitment  to fulfilling its extremely difficult mission in the interests of  achieving peace between the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, which  Pashinyan chose to remain silent about.

Our country, despite increasingly frequent alarms about the creation  of artificial difficulties for Russian companies in the republic, is  invariably pursuing a course of increasing economic and investment  ties with Armenia both bilaterally and within the framework of the  Eurasian Economic Union. Today they are demonstrating record  dynamics, contributing to the impressive growth of the Armenian  economy and the well-being of citizens," the Russian Foreign Ministry  added.

At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that Russia  firmly stands in favor of strengthening the common cultural and  educational fields with Armenia, despite the attempts of individual  Armenian representatives to slow down the progress of mutually  beneficial projects in the humanitarian sphere.

"In regional affairs, Pashinyan,  instead of observing the  gentleman's agreement between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and  Armenia of November 2020 to leave the issue of the status of  Nagorno-Karabakh to future generations,  succumbed to the  instructions of the West. In Prague and Brussels, he decided to act  based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, recognizing the  sovereignty of Azerbaijan over Nagorno- Karabakh. This fundamentally  changed the conditions under which the trilateral statement of  November 9, 2020 was signed, as well as the position of the Russian  peacekeeping contingent. Due to the short- sightedness of the  Armenian leadership, it was not possible to implement a number of  agreements in the field of strengthening security of Armenia, in  particular, Pashinyan did not sign the decision already agreed upon  by all foreign ministers of six countries to send a CSTO observation  mission to the regions of the republic bordering Azerbaijan," the  Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized.

At the same time, Moscow added that the situation was heated by  official Yerevan's persistent denial of the continued presence of  "Armenian armed formations" in Nagorno-Karabakh after November 9,  2020, which became one of the key reasons for the latest escalation  in September.

"The agreement reached through the mediation of the RPC on September  20 on the withdrawal of the remaining Armenian units and the complete  disarmament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army with the removal of  heavy equipment and weapons revealed the real picture and created the  preconditions for sustainable de-escalation.

Largely as a result of the inconsistent position of the Armenian  leadership, which preferred to shy away and run to the West over  rhythmic work together with Russia and Azerbaijan, the implementation  of a set of trilateral agreements at the highest level for 2020-2022  has stalled," the Russian Foreign Ministry assured.  At the same  time, the department added that precious time was lost, during which  significant progress could have been made in terms of agreeing on a  peace treaty, delimiting the border and unblocking regional  communications, which would have become additional security factors  for Armenia.

"It is also noteworthy that at the aforementioned Prague and Brussels  meetings under the auspices of the European Union, the Prime Minister  of Armenia, recognizing the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, did  not remember the rights and safety of the Karabakh Armenians. Today  we do not see any strong interest in official Yerevan to help solve  pressing problems in Nagorno-Karabakh , we are talking about creating  favorable conditions for observing the ceasefire, improving the  humanitarian situation, and establishing a sustainable dialogue  between Baku and Stepanakert.

This irresponsible approach of Pashinyan's team caused understandable  discontent among part of the Armenian society, which was expressed in  popular protests. Of course, allegations that they were inspired by  Russia have nothing to do with reality. The head of the Armenian  government should be well aware that Moscow does not deal with such  things - unlike the West, which is quite skilled in organizing "color  revolutions", but by a strange coincidence chose not to notice the  numerous facts of persecution of protesters by the authorities in  Yerevan. At the same time, as is well known, the U.S. Ambassador  maintains close contacts with the government. Against this  background, clearly at the instigation of the authorities, a real  anti-Russian bacchanalia has unfolded in the Armenian media.

We are convinced that the Yerevan leadership is making a huge  mistake, deliberately trying to destroy the multifaceted and  centuries-old ties between Armenia and Russia and making the country  a hostage to the geopolitical games of the West. We are confident  that the overwhelming majority of the Armenian population is also  aware of this," the Russian Foreign Ministry summarized.  It should  be noted that Pashinyan said on September 24 that Azerbaijan's  attacks on Armenia in recent years make it obvious that the external  security systems that Armenia was involved in are ineffective from  the point of view of protecting state interests and the security of  the republic. This fact became obvious not only during the 44-day war  in 2020, but also in May and November 2021 and in September 2022. He  also considered the activities of the RPC in Artsakh ineffective and  criticized the CSTO.