Moscow blames Armenia for the failure of peace talks with Azerbaijan.
Russia blames its ally Armenia for the collapse of peace talks with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Armenia’s decision to cancel a meeting in Moscow scheduled for last December has impeded talks on a peace deal, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. She accused Armenia of making contradictory statements. This makes it difficult to assess Yerevan’s position.
“If our Armenian partners are really interested in solving the problems … it’s important to keep working together,” said Zakharova. The statements show once again that relations between Moscow and Yerevan are in crisis in the midst of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Recently, Armenia has repeatedly indicated that it does not feel adequately supported in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
The country recently canceled the exercises of the Russian-led CSTO military alliance on its territory for 2023. In the current situation, this is inappropriate, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan justified the decision without going into details. In addition to Russia and Armenia, the CSTO alliance also includes the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Conflict in the Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in turn, strained relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades. According to international opinion, the area, predominantly inhabited by Armenians, belongs to Azerbaijan, from which it renounced. The conflict repeatedly erupted into armed violence. In 2020, the two sides signed a ceasefire, brokered by Moscow, which will be monitored by a Russian peacekeeping force. However, heavy fighting broke out again last September, with many killed.
The situation worsened again in December
Things took a turn for the worse in December, when Azerbaijanis, self-styled climate activists, blocked the only road linking Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia sees the Azerbaijani government as the mastermind and accuses Russia of not doing enough to lift the blockade.
Moscow has said it is doing everything it can. Azerbaijan, which is backed by NATO member Turkey, has denied that access to Nagorno-Karabakh is being blocked. However, the concerns of supposed climate protectors are justified, as Armenians are mining illegally in the area.