Armenian PM considers "very likely" a new war with Azerbaijan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Friday in an interview with AFP that a new war of his country with Azerbaijan is "very likely". He accuses his neighbour of carrying out a "genocide" of Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pachanian, July 21, 2023 in Yerevan, Armenia. © KAREN MINASYAN / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

Advertising

Read more

«

As long as a peace treaty is not signed and such a treaty is not ratified by the parliaments of both countries, of course, a [new] war [with Azerbaijan] is very likely," Nikol Pashinyan warned. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars for control of Nagorno-Karabakh. The last one, in 2020, resulted in an Armenian defeat, Azerbaijani territorial gains, and a fragile ceasefire.

Tensions escalated in early July when Azerbaijan closed traffic on the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, for various reasons. The Azerbaijani blockade has created a serious humanitarian crisis in the predominantly Armenian enclave, with shortages of food and medicine and frequent power cuts. "This is not a genocide in preparation, but a genocide that is ongoing," Nikol Pashinyan said, accusing the Azerbaijani army of creating a "ghetto" in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Call for pressure from the West and Moscow to stop the blockade

The last round of peace talks, held on July 15 in Brussels, failed to produce a breakthrough, Nikol Pashinyan said that the West and Russia must exert increased pressure on Baku in order to lift the blockade. "According to the logic of some Western circles, Russia does not meet all our expectations because it does not fulfill its obligations, but Russia tells us the same thing about the West," he said.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, negotiations between the two rivals are hampered by "Azerbaijan's aggressive rhetoric and hate speech against Armenians." He accused Baku of carrying out a "policy of ethnic cleansing".

This enclave had already been the subject of a war with the fall of the USSR in the 1990s, which cost the lives of 30,000 people. The most recent conflict, in 2020, left 6,500 dead on both sides.

To listen alsoGreat report - In Armenia, the impossible border with Azerbaijan

(With AFP

NewsletterReceive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Share:

Read on on the same topics:

• Armenia
• Nikol Pashinyan
• Azerbaijan
• Nagorno-Karabakh