Armenian ex-foreign minister banned from entering Nagorno-Karabakh
YEREVAN, August 1. /ARKA/. Armenia's first post-Soviet foreign minister Raffi Hovhannisyan, who is also the founder of Heritage party, was banned by Russian peacekeepers from entering Nagorno-Karabakh, it has emerged.
"Russian peacekeeping forces officially barred Armenian first minister of foreign affairs and the founder of the Heritage Party Raffi Hovhannisyan from entering the territory of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) at the Aghavno crossing point,' the Heritage party said in a statement.
According to it, Hovhannisyan was heading to Nagorno-Karabakh capital Stepanakert to attend the christening of his grandson.
The statement says that after showing their commander's order along with Hovhannisyan's photograph, the Russian peacekeepers at the checkpoint did not provide any articulate justification or reason, but said that the ban may have come from the official Yerevan.
According to the Heritage party, the Artsakh government was very surprised by the ban and tried for a long time to get an explanation from the Russians, but to no avail. Artsakh representatives did not rule out the possible involvement of the Azerbaijani dictatorship in this arbitrariness, the party said.
On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons.
After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. -0
