Ararat Mirzoyan on Sergey Lavrov’s Surprise and Ongoing Threats from Azerbaijan

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, gave an interview to Radio Azatutyun.

– During a press conference in Moscow with the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed surprise that the news about the Armenian Foreign Minister's non-participation in the tripartite meeting scheduled for December 23 was learned from the Armenian side’s press release rather than through diplomatic channels. How would you comment on that?

– I too express surprise at the surprise of my esteemed colleague Sergey Lavrov. Given the humanitarian crisis created by Azerbaijan's illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor, the request from the Armenian side to postpone the meeting between myself, the Russian, and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers was communicated to both the representatives of the central apparatus of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Ambassador in Armenia. Otherwise, it is inexplicable how the Russian Foreign Ministry could announce via its press release much earlier about the Armenian side's non-attendance in Moscow than the Armenian Foreign Ministry could declare the reasons for it.

– Minister Lavrov also expressed confidence regarding the continuity of incidents, if one of the parties refuses to participate in the previously agreed negotiations at every turn. How should this be understood, in your opinion?

– The Armenian side clearly indicated the reason for and necessity of postponing the meeting. Let’s agree that it is difficult to have constructive and effective meetings under conditions of ongoing threats and new manifestations of the use of force. Regarding his confidence in the continued manifestations of such incidents, I believe that the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, and the presence of the Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh are meant to exclude such confidence.

– At the press conference with Sergey Lavrov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Bayramov claimed that in November 2020, Armenia promised to 'liberate' eight villages but has not fulfilled that commitment. How do you comment on this?

– As we have stated many times, the Armenian side has not undertaken such a commitment either in the tripartite statement of November 9 or in any other way. There are no obligations other than those that are written, signed, and published agreements. We believe that the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, by speaking of such fictitious commitments, is attempting to justify his country's continuous and gross violations of the provisions of the tripartite statement of November 9. At the same time, I must emphasize that Armenia has repeatedly proposed to pull back troops to deploy the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan along the administrative border that existed between the Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs.