Baku and Moscow Prevent Armenian Prime Minister from Visiting Artsakh: Vardan Balayan

Political analyst Vardan Balayan wrote on his Facebook page: “At Baku’s request, Moscow has blocked the route for the Armenian leader to Artsakh. The visits of two key presidential candidates from France to Armenia did not receive the necessary coverage in our information space, unfortunately. Meanwhile, the visit of Republican candidate Valerie Pecresse to Artsakh on December 22 caused serious displeasure in Baku. The temporary representative of the Republic of France was summoned to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed an official note of protest. The message from Azerbaijan’s main diplomatic service notes that “Ms. Pecresse’s actions have seriously undermined France’s reputation in the region and the role that France could have in resolving Azerbaijani-Armenian relations.”

It is worth recalling that the presidential candidate also visited Yerablur and declared during a press conference: “We must mobilize all of Europe around this conflict; this is not just a conflict in the Caucasus, it is a conflict that concerns Europe, as when Christians are attacked from the East..., the foundations of European civilization are under assault.”

In the near future, I will address the details of Ms. Pecresse’s visit and that of far-right candidate Eric Zemmour in a separate post, but for now, I want to draw attention to some extremely important factors that have remained out of the public eye. Thus, Pecresse’s visit has inflamed Baku’s discontent regarding the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh. According to Azerbaijani and Russian sources, a demand has been presented to Moscow to exclude such visits.

But here another interesting episode arises: It turns out that Baku and Moscow have an agreement not to allow Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Artsakh. It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijani information space is publicly questioning, clearly with the official permission of Baku, how Ms. Pecresse managed to overcome the Russian checkpoints that block the way to Stepanakert from Pashinyan’s perspective.

And at the very least, our absolute silence regarding such a scandalous reality raises questions: What does it mean that Moscow is blocking the Armenian leader’s road to Armenian Artsakh at Baku’s request?