Thursday, March 9, 2023
Russia Criticizes ‘Bellicose Rhetoric’ On Karabakh
RUSSIA - Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova speaks during a
news briefing in Moscow, Jamiary 20, 2022.
Russia criticized “bellicose” statements on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on
Thursday two days after Azerbaijan threatened to take “resolute” actions against
Karabakh Armenian forces.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry threatened to “disarm and neutralize” them as
it accused Armenia of continuing to send military personnel and weapons to
Karabakh. It also alleged that Russian peacekeepers escorted on Tuesday a convoy
of Armenian and Karabakh military trucks along a dirt road close to a section of
the Lachin corridor blocked by Azerbaijani protesters since December.
The authorities in Yerevan and Stepanakert were quick to reject the allegations.
Moscow has still not reacted to them.
“Bellicose rhetoric from any side is counterproductive,” Maria Zakharova, the
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told a news briefing in Moscow. “It does
not help advance the peace agenda.”
“We proceed from the fact that Baku and Yerevan must strictly comply with all
the provisions of the tripartite [Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] agreements at
the highest level, including on ensuring security in Nagorno-Karabakh and using
the Lachin corridor,” added Zakharova.
The 2020 ceasefire agreement brokered Moscow placed the corridor under the
control of Russian peacekeepers and committed Baku to guaranteeing free passage
through it.
The Armenian side regards the three-month Azerbaijani blockade of the sole road
connecting Karabakh to Armenia as a gross violation of that agreement. It
maintains that Baku’s desire to set up an Azerbaijani checkpoint there also runs
counter to the truce accord.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov similarly indicated Moscow’s opposition
to the checkpoint when he visited Baku last week.
Zakharova on Thursday also said: “We also believe that de-escalation of the
current situation would be facilitated by official Yerevan’s active
participation in the search for mutually acceptable solutions.”
She appeared to allude to Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s reluctance
to hold a trilateral meeting with Lavrov and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun
Bayramov.
The three ministers were scheduled to meet in Moscow in late December. Mirzoyan
cancelled the talks at the last minute in protest against the Azerbaijani
blockade of the Lachin corridor.
Lavrov said in Baku that he still stands ready to host the talks. He noted that
Yerevan “has not yet given its final consent.”
Armenia Hit By Measles Outbreak
• Robert Zargarian
U.S. - A vial of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is pictured at
the International Community Health Services clinic in Seattle, March 20, 2019.
Health authorities are scrambling to contain the first major outbreak of measles
in Armenia in almost eight years.
The total number of measles cases recorded by them has doubled to 43 in the past
week. Most of the persons infected with the highly contagious virus are
children, according to the Ministry of Health. Seventeen patients have been
hospitalized so far.
“We have not yet gone beyond the bounds of a local outbreak,” Health Minister
Anahit Avanesian told reporters on Thursday. “But we will have a clearer picture
of the trend at the end of the week.”
Vaccination is the most effective way of preventing the spread of the acute
respiratory disease. Armenian children have long received two doses of a measles
vaccine: the first at 12 months of age and a second between 4 and 6 years old.
The South Caucasus country’s vaccination rate is estimated at 95 percent, which
should be enough to prevent a nationwide epidemic.
In recent days, the Ministry of Health has repeatedly urged unvaccinated
Armenians to get inoculated against measles.
In a joint report released last November, the World Health Organization (WHO)
and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned of “an imminent threat of
measles spreading to different regions around the world” because of a “steady
decline in vaccination coverage and weakened surveillance of the disease” caused
by the coronavirus pandemic.
The WHO already recorded last year an increase in large measles outbreaks around
the world.
Pashinian Backs Dialogue Between Baku, Stepanakert
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan,
January 12, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday called for more contacts between
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh while accusing Baku of planning new attacks on
the Armenian-populated region.
Pashinian again described Sunday’s armed incident near Stepanakert, which left
three Karabakh Armenian police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead, as an
Azerbaijani “terrorist act.” He said that that it was aimed at torpedoing
dialogue between Azerbaijani and Karabakh officials and preparing the ground for
a “new military provocation.”
Pashinian stressed that despite the deadly violence Karabakh’s leadership issued
on Wednesday an “extremely important” statement expressing readiness for further
talks with Baku.
“I think it is necessary to create reliable international mechanisms for
uninterrupted and institutional conversations between Baku and Stepanakert,” he
added during a weekly session of his cabinet.
He did not elaborate on those mechanisms sought by Yerevan.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry likewise charged on Wednesday that Azerbaijan is
gearing up for “new aggression” with false claims about shipments of Armenian
military personnel and weapons to Karabakh.
Earlier this week, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that Russian
peacekeepers escorted a convoy of Armenian and Karabakh military trucks along a
dirt road running parallel to a section of the Lachin corridor blocked by
Azerbaijani protesters since December. The Armenian side dismissed the claim as
“disinformation.”
On Thursday, the Defense Ministry in Baku accused Armenian forces of firing
overnight at Azerbaijani troops deployed along Azerbaijan’s border with Armenia
and in Karabakh. Armenia’s Defense Ministry and the Karabakh Armenian army
strongly denied violating the ceasefire.
A senior European Union diplomat said later in the day that he is “greatly
concerned about the recent deadly clash and renewed reports of shootings.”
“No justification for violence; all issues need to be addressed through
negotiations only,” tweeted Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special representative to the
South Caucasus.
Klaar visited Yerevan and Baku late last month to discuss the possibility of
another meeting between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev which
EU chief Charles Michel offered to host in Brussels.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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