Pashinyan warns of ‘high likelihood’ of border escalation

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday warned of a “high likelihood” of an escalation on the border with Azerbaijan and in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

“There is a very high probability of an escalation both along Armenia’s border [with Azerbaijan] and in Nagorno-Karabakh,” he told a press conference in Yerevan, pointing to Azerbaijan’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric and several other factors.

Pashinyan said he had raised problems in the area of Russian peacekeepers’ responsibility in Nagorno-Karabakh in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

“In a phone conversation with the Russian president, I spoke of a risk of escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh and said that there are problems in the Russian peacekeepers’ zone of responsibility,” he noted.

He described the months-long blockde of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan, which has caused a humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, as “preparation for ethnic cleansing of Armenians” and reiterated the call for the deployment of an international monitoring mission to the corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Also, the premier said that Armenia recently received Baku’s response to its proposals for a peace treaty submitted in mid-February and noted some progress in the peace process.

However, he said “fundamental problems” remain unresolved because “Azerbaijan is trying to put forward territorial claims against Armenia, which is a red line to the country.”