Pashinyan criticizes Russian peacekeepers for inability to protect Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh
YEREVAN, March 16. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has again criticized Russian peacekeepers of doing little to protect the ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijani attacks.
Speaking at a government meeting today Pashinyan said when deciding to deploy peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia officially admitted the likelihood of massacres of civilians (by Azerbaijan) and assumed the role of security guarantor for them.
"We hope that Russia will fulfill these obligations in full. But if Russia, which is Armenia's friend and an ally is unable to fulfill this function for some objective or subjective reasons, then it should address the UN Security Council and inform it about the threat of destroying civilians and infrastructures (in Nagorno-Karabakh) and convey to it the necessity of additional international mechanisms to exclude that," he said.
At the same time, Pashinyan noted that he has no prejudice against Russian peacekeepers and their activities.
"It's just that the sequence of events over the past two years, such as the occupation of Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher villages by Azerbaijan, the events in Parukh and the illegal blockade of Lachin corridor, killings of policemen and civilians, the periodic violation of ceasefire, actions aimed at terrorizing civilians, raise these concerns," the prime minister said.
At the same time he noted the special role of the peacekeepers because thanks to their efforts, the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh has not turned into a humanitarian disaster.
Earlier Pashinyan suggested that the Russian Federation should initiate a discussion in the UN Security Council and raise the issue of granting the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh a mandate from the UN Security Council or sending an additional, multinational peacekeeping force to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinyan's proposal was dismissed by Pyotr Ilyichev, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, who said that the Russian peacekeeping contingent remained the only guarantor of maintaining stability in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
“There is no need to give it a UN mandate since the modalities of our peacekeepers’ activities are already clearly fixed in the first tripartite statement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia dated November 9, 2020,” he said.-0-
