Russia blasted Yerevan for criticizing its foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who earlier this week accused Armenia of sabotaging efforts to open transport links in the region, especially in the Syunik Province, echoing Baku’s complaints against Yerevan.
The Armenian’s foreign ministry’s response to remarks made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is another example of Yerevan’s policy of blaming others for its own mistakes, said Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Wednesday. She said that Yerevan is “attributing its own strategic miscalculations to others, in particular to Russia.”
“But their politics are set in such a way that they just have to blame someone else —anyone— for their own failures,” Zakharova added.
Armenia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday responded to Lavrov’s accusations, saying that the Russian foreign minister’s remarks “calls into question the constructive engagement of the Russian Federation in the normalization process of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
“Unfortunately, it is the Armenian leadership that is sabotaging the agreement signed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan when it comes to transit routes passing through the Syunik region of Armenia. It is difficult to understand the meaning of such a position. I am sure that the foundation laid within the framework of tripartite documents remains fully relevant,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russia’s Channel One.
Lavrov’s comments were part of a broader interview that aired on Russia’s Channel One, yet only the portion about Armenia was highlighted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official website to coincide with a visit by President Vladimir Putin of Russia to Azerbaijan on Monday.
Zakharova doubled down on Moscow’s criticism and accused Armenia of “dropping” the agreements reached over a course of “12 meetings” at the urging of the West, which it has accused of using Yerevan to advance its agenda in the South Caucasus.
Specifically, she cited the paragraph nine of the November 9, 2020 agreement, which stipulates that Armenia “will guarantee the security of transport links” between mainland Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. That the section of the agreement also stipulates that Russian border guards would patrol and control the transport links.
Zakharova said that, despite almost reaching a final agreement, Yerevan was being “dogged” about having the Russian border guards patrolling both sides of the road.
“The Armenian authorities, at the behest of their new Western friends, effectively froze joint work in the tripartite working group. But it did not lead to any practical results in the interests of Armenia in terms of unblocking the transit routes,” Zakharova said.
“Unfortunately, Yerevan is once again acting at the behest of the West, missing not only the opportunity to establish transport links with its neighbors for the benefit of its own economy, including through the implementation of its concept of the ‘Crossroads of Peace,’ but also for the sake of normalizing the situation in the region as a whole,” she added, referencing the Armenian government’s plan that was cited by Yerevan in its response to Lavrov’s remarks.
“We call on the authorities of Yerevan not to allow the West to spoil the long-term efforts to establish sustainable peace in the South Caucasus,” the Russian spokesperson said.
“This is especially urgent, taking into account the obsession of the United States and the European Union, which are steeped in the idea of pushing Russia out of the South Caucasus and driving a wedge in our relations with Armenia and other countries of the region,” Zakharova emphasized.
She also emphasized the West’s “Russophoic ambitions,” while saying those “destructive efforts” are aimed to derail the region. The Russian spokesperson then described an upcoming visit to Armenian by President Emmanuel Macron of France as part of that “paradigm,” in order to drive home the point that Armenia does not have other alternatives than the Russia-backed Collective Security Treaty Organization.
“Ultimately, there is no alternative to the CSTO and Russia as guarantors of the stability of this country. This has been tested not for years, but for centuries; this is appreciated by the Armenian people. By the way, this is recorded in the history of Armenia, in the very history that cannot be rewritten, despite the fake textbooks published,” Zakharova emphasized.
