Speaking after a trilateral meeting with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Moscow held on Tuesday, Lavrov said they discussed “the problem of guaranteeing the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in the context of ensuring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.” He said Yerevan “understands the need to convince the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh” to reach agreements with Baku stemming from international conventions on ethnic minorities.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Armenian Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Lavrov’s statement which prompted serious concern from the Karabakh premier, Gurgen Nersisian.
“It is becoming clear from yesterday's statement by the Russian foreign minister that Armenia has already decided the range of issues to be discussed during the dialogue or has agreed with the subject of discussion proposed by Azerbaijan,” Nersisian wrote on Facebook. “Now either Armenia must deny that or we will have to conclude that the ‘bar’ on the Baku-Stepanakert dialogue has also been lowered to an unspeakable extent.”
Nersisian said that the agenda of such a dialogue must include Karabakh’s right to self-determination still championed by the authorities in Stepanakert. Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, complained late last month that Baku is only willing to discuss the Armenian-populated region’s “integration” into Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned in late May that the Karabakh Armenians must accept Azerbaijani rule or risk fresh military action. In mid-June, Baku completely blocked relief supplies to Karabakh carried out by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Aliyev’s threats and the tightening of the blockade followed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s pledge to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Nersisian demanded that Yerevan walk back on that pledge when he addressed late on Tuesday thousands of people who again rallied in Stepanakert in protest against the Azerbaijani blockade. “Artsakh and the people of Artsakh cannot be part of Azerbaijan,” he said, responding to Pashinian’s comments made at a news conference earlier in the day.
The tensions between Yerevan and Stepanakert have been stoked by a controversy caused by Pashinian’s wife, Anna Hakobian.
Last week, Hakobian posted on her Facebook page photographs of vegetables grown in the garden of the Pashinian family’s state-owned residence and a soup cooked by her. Critics in Armenia and especially Karabakh said the post was inappropriate and ill-timed given the worsening food shortages in Karabakh.
Pashinian bristled at the criticism during his news conference, seemingly blaming Stepanakert for it. He spent about 15 minutes detailing the Armenian government’s economic aid to Karabakh and accusing the Karabakh authorities of failing to develop local agriculture to better cope with the blockade
“Some should have planted eggplants instead of [relying on] 150 billion drams [in Armenian government aid,]” he said.
Nersisian hit back at Pashinian in his speech at the Stepanakert rally. He argued that Karabakh farmers have cultivated this year more land than in 2022 and 2021 but now have trouble harvesting their crops because of systematic gunfire from Azerbaijani army positions. Also, he said, a lack of fuel prevents them from delivering agricultural produce to markets.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said last week that “Azerbaijan continues to obstruct agricultural activities on approximately 10,000 hectares of land adjacent to the line of contact, which constitutes a significant portion of [Karabakh’s] total cultivated land.”