BAKU, September 6. /TASS/. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev discussed opening roads so that cargo could be delivered to Karabakh during a phone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the press service of the Azerbaijani President reported.

According to it, the conversation took place on the initiative of the US side on September 1. “During the telephone conversation, views on issues related to the opening of the Aghdam-Khankendi and Lachin-Khankendi roads were exchanged. President Aliyev emphasized that the notorious separatist regime Armenia has created and supported in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan deliberately prevents the opening of Aghdam-Khankendi road as well as creates artificial obstacles for its use. <...> Azerbaijan’s President noted that this denial to use Aghdam-Khankendi road is political manipulation, and the statements about the humanitarian or food crisis in this territory are deliberate lies,” the report says.

The Azerbaijani president also said that after opening Aghdam-Khankendi road, Lachin-Khankendi road can also be opened “with the application of the rules of customs and border control regime of Azerbaijan”. Aliyev also emphasized that Armenia’s delivery of cargoes to the Lachin border checkpoint, which it claims have humanitarian purpose, without coordination with the Azerbaijani side “is interference in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan and disrespect for its territorial integrity and sovereignty.” “The Azerbaijani president noted that such a policy severely harms the negotiations on the peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan,” the report states.

According to the press service, Blinken announced that he would continue efforts aimed at signing a peace treaty and normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. He emphasized that the US has been keeping in direct contact with Baku and the Karabakh Armenians.

According to the Armenian side, the Lachin corridor, which is the only land route from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, was blocked by a group of Azerbaijanis on December 12, 2022. Baku then officially established a checkpoint on the border with Armenia near the Hakari Bridge. The Azerbaijani side has repeatedly declared its readiness to provide the Armenian population of the region with everything they need via the Aghdam-Khankendi highway.

YEREVAN, September 7. /TASS/. Azerbaijan has amassed its troops on the border with Armenia and the demarcation line with Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a Cabinet meeting as he described the situation as explosive.

“In the past week, the military-political situation in our region has deteriorated. This is because, in the past few days, Azerbaijan has been amassing troops along the line of engagement in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Anti-Armenian rhetoric and hate speech have intensified in the Azerbaijani press and on propaganda platforms,” the Armenian premier said.

Pashinyan urged the international community and UN Security Council member countries to take serious steps to prevent another explosion of tensions in the region. “Armenia is ready and willing to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan and we reiterate our commitment to the global agenda on the basis of agreements [signed] in Brussels and Prague as well as the tripartite agreement (between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia – TASS),” he added.

BISHKEK, September 7. /TASS/. Moscow hews to the position that member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) should prioritize holding military exercises with their allies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.

Commenting on Armenia’s plans to hold joint drills with the United States, which kick off on September 11, he said: “Armenia is an CSTO ally, and we have always operated on the premise that CSTO members should hold maneuvers with their allies.”

“Of course, we have taken note of this. And we have highlighted in the most serious way to our Armenian allies <…> the fact that we perceive this with an element of concern,” he said, taking a question from TASS.

Earlier, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced that the South Caucasus country will hold a joint military exercise, Eagle Partner 2023, with the United States on Armenian soil on September 11-20.

On Monday, Gunther Fehlinger, chair of the European Committee for NATO Enlargement, called on Armenia to join the North Atlantic Alliance. Later that day, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan said that his country cooperated with NATO in various formats and that it was ready to continue this process.

YEREVAN, September 7. /TASS/. There are no tensions between Yerevan and Moscow, there are issues that are being discussed routinely, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said during a briefing.

He noted that “Armenia does criticize the CSTO, but the withdrawal from the organization is not on agenda.”

Recently, Yerevan was making critical remarks regarding Moscow’s position on regional issues, and the fulfillment of duties by Russian peacekeepers in the Lachin corridor. Armenian authorities invited a EU civilian mission that has been operating on the Azerbaijani border since the beginning of this year and advocated an increase of the number of observers. In mid-September, Armenia will hold the Eagle Partner joint military exercise with the US on its territory.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that statements of Armenian politicians often comprise “rhetoric on the verge of boorishness.” She underscored that Moscow is ready to talk with Armenian representatives both on the expert level and on a good political level. Meanwhile, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that Russia continues to fulfill its function as a guarantor of security and scrupulously works with both Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the situation. The joint Armenian-US military exercise will not contribute to stabilization of the situation in the region, he added.

Zakharova also pointed out that the deployment of the EU observation mission did not help to reduce the tension at the border, where skirmishes still take place. She also noted the proposal to deploy a CSTO mission in the region, noting that all member states stated their readiness and adding that “the ball is in Yerevan’s court.”

YEREVAN, September 7. /TASS/. There is no way Armenia can join NATO, owing to “technical and political reasons,” Sargis Khandanyan, Head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party, said.

“Armenia is open to cooperation with other countries in the security and defense spheres. As for Armenia’s NATO membership, I don’t see how it is possible for technical and political reasons, and the Armenian government has never talked about wanting to be a member,” he said at a briefing.

At the same time, Khandanyan criticized the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which, according to him, has “abandoned Armenia.” The lawmaker also said that Yerevan has “many questions” for Moscow.

On September 4, Gunther Fehlinger, chair of the European Committee for NATO Enlargement, called on Armenia to join the alliance. Later that day, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan said that his country cooperated with NATO in various formats and that it was ready to continue this process.

On September 6, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko called Fehlinger’s remarks about Armenia needing to join NATO a “grand fantasy.” According to him, Moscow proceeds from the reality that Armenia is a member of the CSTO and intends to “further strengthen military and political cooperation” with its ally.

Earlier, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced that joint military exercises between Armenia and the US entitled Eagle Partner 2023 will be held on the territory of Armenia on September 11-20. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow has expressed its concern to Yerevan over the decision to hold exercises with the US. The diplomat pointed out that Armenia, as a member of the CSTO, “in the spirit of alliance and partnership, should stick to conducting exercises with those who are members of this alliance.”

YEREVAN, September 7. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has decided to change the country’s politics in a move that benefits the West, as evidenced by his recent moves, Eduard Sharmazanov, a former deputy speaker of the country’s parliament and member of the board of the Republican Party led by the third President, Serzh Sargsyan.

Last week, Pashinyan, in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, argued that Russia was distancing itself from the South Caucasus and that Russian peacekeepers were not controlling the Lachin corridor, because Russia was either unwilling or unable to do so. The day before, Armenia’s Cabinet sent the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to parliament for ratification. This week, Yerevan announced joint exercises with the United States, due to begin on September 11, and Pashinyan’s wife Anna Hakobyan visited Kiev, where she took part in a “forum of first ladies and gentlemen” and was photographed with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

“Nikol Pashinyan is changing Armenia’s political course,” Sharmazanov believes. “This is a continuation of his statements that Russia’s military presence in Armenia is a threat, that Russia wants us to provide them with a corridor (meaning a proposed transportation corridor from the main territory of Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan through the territory of Armenia – TASS) or is forcing us to join the Union State. This is a continuation of the statements about the issue of Lachin (Lachin corridor – TASS) being put under the responsibility of Russia.”

He said this was not the first such attempt by the current Armenian authorities.

“Back in 2018, US presidential national security advisor John Bolton visited Armenia and said that the Armenian people should abandon their traditions. Among other things, he had in mind the destruction of Armenian-Russian relations. Pashinyan is consistently ruining Armenian-Russian relations,” the expert believes.

“Pashinyan is taking advantage of the situation in Ukraine, trying to sign an agreement with Azerbaijan with the help of the West. As a result, Armenia sustains territorial losses,” Sharmazanov warned.

Hayk Naapetyan, a security expert and retired colonel, agrees. “The plans for ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Armenian-US military exercises, the statements about joining NATO, and the visit of Pashinyan’s wife to Kiev indicate that the Armenian leadership has made a final decision to start the process of distancing itself from Russia and leaving the CSTO and the EAEU,” he told TASS.

According to Naapetyan, in his interview with the Italian newspaper, Pashinyan clearly stated that security cooperation with Russia was the wrong architecture and that the CSTO was not fulfilling its legal obligations.

In Moscow, Pashinyan’s statements to the Italian media sparked criticism. A diplomatic source told TASS that the Russian side regarded them “as unacceptable in tone and content and aimed at shifting the responsibility for its own miscalculations and mistakes onto Russia.”

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, commenting on the news of the upcoming Eagle Partner 2023 exercises between Armenia and the United States, told TASS that Russia had made its allies in Armenia deftly aware of the fact that their military exercises with the United States were perceived in Moscow with certain concern. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the information about these exercises was worrisome, and Moscow would deeply analyze this situation and keep an eye on what happened next.

Russia also paid attention to the statement made by the Chairman of the European Committee for NATO Development Gunther Fehlinger to the effect that Armenia should join the North Atlantic Alliance. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said in this regard that the Armenian people had enough wisdom “not to buy” NATO’s attempts to draw their country into the alliance’s sphere of influence. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS that the statements made in the EU about Armenia’s needing to join NATO were “grand fantasies.”