If such statements are an attempt to justify the deployment of the EU observers in the region, it can hardly be considered a successful attempt, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a weekly briefing, commenting on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement that one of the objectives of the EU observation mission is to dispel Western suspicions, i.e. Baku's assurances to its Western partners that Armenia and Russia are planning aggression against Azerbaijan together.
"Russian peacekeepers ensure peace in Nagorno-Karabakh, our military border guards work on the territory of Armenia, including on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. We have never heard about Baku's concerns in this regard, at the same time we know about Azerbaijan's critical attitude towards the EU's decision to deploy its observer mission to Armenia. It is obvious that Brussels aims to change the security system, which has been formed in the region, and its cornerstone is the presence of Russian military and border guards, as well as Armenia's membership to the CSTO. Well, of course, the spirit, the political will, call it what you want...the realization in practice of the decisions that have been reached between the three countries, it is also, of course, a considerable part of the overall picture of the security system. I want to believe that this is understood and taken into consideration in Yerevan. We are open to dialogue with Armenian partners on improving measures to maintain stability in the South Caucasus, both in bilateral and multilateral formats, including the appropriate developments within the CSTO," she said.
On Wednesday, Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in parliament concerning the EU observation mission arriving to Armenia: "Before the EU observation mission arrived, Azerbaijan was explaining its aggressive actions against Armenia by the fact that Armenia, its Prime Minister was introducing more and more Russian military units and deploying them on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. They say a joint Armenian-Russian aggressive attack against Azerbaijan is being prepared and Baku is trying to more or less balance the situation with its aggressive attacks.
In the West, they tried to portray Armenia as a participant in Russia's aggressive policy, and in Russia - as a participant in the Western conspiracy. Since Russian partners had representatives on the ground, our Western partners have already started to look at us suspiciously, you are going to carry out aggressive actions, because there are large accumulations of Armenian and Russian troops, you are going to attack Azerbaijan. Poor Azerbaijanis want to seize the heights, so that there is a balance. Realizing that a lot of resources are being spent on this, we said: OK, you yourself come and observe everything on the spot, see if all this is true or not?"
