During his visit to the Netherlands, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, while speaking at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations on May 11, touched upon the current relations with Azerbaijan and the latest situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. A day after, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded to Pashinyan’s comments.
What did Pashinyan claim:
- Following the signing of the tripartite statement on November 9, 2020, Azerbaijan stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict had been resolved. Pashinyan said that this is not only a political statement, but in fact the culmination of Azerbaijan’s views on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. “If we formulate this policy in one sentence, the policy is as follows: Karabakh without Armenians,” he claimed.
- “In the spring of this year, the Azerbaijani military installed loudspeakers near Armenian villages in Nagorno-Karabakh, urging residents to leave their homes,” Pashinyan said, adding “Otherwise, they said, they would be forcibly evicted.”
- At nights the Azerbaijani military pointed to the houses of Armenian villages strong flashlights and at daytime displayed azan on loudspeakers. “This is an example of religious terrorism,” Pashinyan claimed.
- It snowed in Nagorno-Karabakh in March this year. Since March 8, an explosion has occurred in the pipeline supplying gas to Karabakh in the territory, controlled by Azerbaijan. The repair took a long time, and “after the repair, Azerbaijan put a valve on the pipe and tried to use it as a means of political, moral and social pressure,” Pashinyan said.
- In early February, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture announced that a working group had been set up to “delete fake inscriptions” on monuments considered to be the Armenian Churches. And a few months ago, when the President of Azerbaijan visited the territory of Azerbaijan, where the ancient Armenian church is located, he said that the inscriptions on the temples are false, and this lie must be eliminated.
- Today, many international organizations, including the United Nations, UNESCO and even the OSCE, are banned from entering Nagorno-Karabakh. “Azerbaijan is blocking this opportunity. This practice is not very clear, because if there is no desire to distort reality, this policy of restriction of access is not very clear,” Pashinyan said.
Leyla Abdullayeva, spokeswoman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, commented on Nikol Pashinyan’s remarks. She called his allegations baseless.
- “Faced with the position of the international community, Armenia presented the mine maps to Azerbaijan in parts, and the accuracy of the maps was 25%. It is wrong to describe the presentation of mine maps as a humanitarian gesture. Because this was Armenia’s commitment to international humanitarian law after the signing of the tripartite statement.”
- Azerbaijan is currently rebuilding and restoring the territories destroyed by Armenia for nearly 30 years. The large-scale mine problem in these areas poses a serious threat to the early return of IDPs.
- “The accusation of the Armenian Prime Minister against Azerbaijan for not taking humanitarian steps and not returning the detained people of Armenian origin is unfounded and baseless,” Abdullayeva said.
The Foreign Ministry official also stressed that Pashinyan’s baseless allegations against Azerbaijan seriously question their desire to act for peace.
