We advise the representative of the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RF MFA) to refrain from conjuring the circumstances of the situation and thus further complicating the situation. Ani Badalyan, spokesperson of the Republic of Armenia (RA) MFA, noted this in a comment on the statement of Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian MFA. The aforesaid comment reads as follows:

Another identical comment of the RF MFA official representative that the situation created in the Lachin corridor is a consequence of Armenia's recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh [(NK)] as a part of Azerbaijan by reference to the Alma-Ata declaration in Prague in October 2022, after which the issue of Russian peacekeepers [in Karabakh] became a possible interference in the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians, causes bewilderment and disappointment.

We are forced to publicly remind the following, already well-known chronology and essential circumstances.

The NK issue has never been a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan; in its essence, it has always been and continues to be an issue of the rights and security of the NK people.

In August 2022, the Armenian side gave its approval to the Russian plan for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to which the discussion of the NK status was to be postponed indefinitely. Azerbaijan rejected that plan, simultaneously declaring (as on August 31 in Brussels) that it is not going to discuss anything related to NK with Armenia, and days later, on September 13, it resorted to military aggression against the RA sovereign territory.

Not only did the Russian side not pursue its proposal after Azerbaijan's refusal, but also showed absolute indifference regarding the aggression towards the RA sovereign territory, leaving unanswered the official letter of the Armenian side to provide assistance to the RA on the basis of bilateral legal agreements. Moreover, the RF has conditioned its lack of recording of the attack on Armenia and the resulting inaction under the false pretext that the inter-state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not delimited, thus willingly or unwittingly supporting the obviously false and highly dangerous theory that there is no border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, therefore the attack on the borders and the invasion of the territory of Armenia are also difficult to verify. With approximately the same mindset, Armenia's similar application did not receive a proper response within the CSTO framework either.

Under these conditions, on October 6, 2022, in Prague, Armenia and Azerbaijan reaffirmed their commitment to the Alma-Ata declaration, which was signed back in 1991 by the former Soviet republics, including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, recognizing each other's territorial integrity along the former administrative borders of the Soviet states. Thus, nothing new was decided in Prague, as of October 2022, the Alma-Ata declaration has been in force for about 31 years. The Prague agreements did not change anything also in the text of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020. The only novelty was that, based on the results of the Prague meeting, the EU adopted a decision to deploy a monitoring mission on the Armenian side of the interstate border between Armenia and Azerbaijan to contribute to the stability of the border.

The RF has recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan many times, including after the signing of the tripartite statement on November 9, 2020, and the most recent and perhaps the most significant: with the document establishing strategic relations with Azerbaijan, it noted that it recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The Lachin corridor was blocked [by Azerbaijan] on December 12, 2022 as a result of fake protest actions organized by the Azerbaijani authorities in the control zone of the RF peacekeeping contingent. Already in April 2023, the Azerbaijani side set up an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin corridor in the presence of Russian peacekeepers. Although these actions were a clear and gross violation of the tripartite statement, no reaction was recorded to them from the RF. Instead, on June 15, 2023, Russian peacekeepers were actively supporting the attempt [by the Azerbaijanis] to plant a flag of Azerbaijan from outside the scope of their mission and geographical area of responsibility—on the RA sovereign territory, which was immediately followed by a complete blockade of the Lachin corridor [by Azerbaijan], bringing the situation in NK closer to a true humanitarian disaster.

Under the conditions of such permissiveness, in the presence of RF peacekeepers, the Azerbaijani side resorted to such steps as the abducting of Nagorno-Karabakh residents at the illegal [Azerbaijani] checkpoint in the Lachin corridor: on July 29, Vagif Khachatryan, and on August 28, three [university] students.

Unfortunately, similar practices of the RF peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh are not new. (…).

We advise the RF MFA representative to refrain from conjuring the circumstances of the situation and thus further complicating the situation in the absence of actions by Russian peacekeepers to prevent the blocking of the Lachin corridor or to [re]open it after the blocking.

Also, we again consider it necessary to assure that the Republic of Armenia faithful to its commitment to establishing stability in the region on the basis of territorial integrity and mutual recognition of borders. At the same time, we consider it absolutely necessary for long-term peace to restart the Lachin corridor in accordance with the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020 and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, the prevention of a humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the addressing of all existing problems with the Baku-Stepanakert dialogue under international auspices.