Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian opined on Sunday that the country’s current alliances are “ineffective”, in an allusion to long-standing relations with Moscow inherited from Armenia’s time as part of the USSR.
“The external security systems involving Armenia have proven ineffective in protecting its security and interests,” Pashinian said in a speech on state television.
Russia, which has mediated the dispute, has a peacekeeping force in the mountainous region.
“Armenia has never reneged on its obligations nor betrayed its allies. But analysis of the situation shows that the security systems and allies we have long trusted want to demonstrate our vulnerability and the inability of the Armenian people to have an independent state,” he added. .
Armenia remains part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (OTSC), a military alliance led by Russia, but had already shown signs of distancing itself even before the Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh by the Azerbaijani army, which led to a withdrawal from Moscow’s sphere of influence. influence.
Frustration has been brewing in Yerevan for months over Russia’s inability to support Armenia in the fight against Azerbaijan and the lack of involvement of Russian peacekeepers in the conflict between the two neighboring states.
Armenia, which refused to host CSTO maneuvers in January, conducted military exercises with the United States this month, much to Moscow’s dismay.
Last May, the Armenian Prime Minister had already raised the possibility of Armenia withdrawing from the CSTO, again over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, former Soviet republics, have already fought two wars for control of this disputed region, largely populated by Armenians, one in the 1990s and another in 2020.
During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly taking place in New York, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Saturday asked the UN to immediately send a mission to monitor the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region hold.
“The international community must make every effort to immediately deploy a UN mission to verify and assess the human rights, humanitarian and security situation on the ground,” he insisted.
Azerbaijan launched an operation in this breakaway region, inhabited mainly by Armenians, earlier this week and won a lightning victory. Armenian separatists agreed on Friday to surrender their weapons.
Also on Saturday, and also during the proceedings of the UN General Assembly, Azerbaijan’s head of diplomacy, Jeyhun Bayramov, pledged to treat the region’s Armenian majority as “equal citizens.”
However, Armenia fears an “ethical cleansing” and believes that the offensive launched by Azerbaijan was “not accidental.”
“Unfortunately, we do not have a partner for peace, but rather a country that openly declares that ‘reason is on the side of the strong’ and that continuously uses violence to disrupt the peace process,” the head of Armenian diplomacy said..
Nagorno-Karabakh was annexed to Azerbaijan by Soviet power in 1921, but is mainly inhabited by Armenians.
Source: DN
