RA MFA Spokesperson Ani Badalyan responded yesterday to the Russian MFA representative Maria Zakharova's statement that the Lachin Corridor is closed due to Armenia's recognition of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity."

"Another similar comment by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry is that the situation created in the Lachin Corridor is a consequence of Armenia's recognition of Nagorno Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan by reference to the Alma-Ata Declaration in Prague in October 2022, after which the issue of Russian peacekeepers became a possible influence on the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians. Causes confusion and disappointment.

We must publicly remind ourselves of the following well-known chronology and essential circumstances.

The NK issue has never been a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It has always been and continues to be an issue of the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In August 2022, the Armenian side approved the Russian project for the regulation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to which the discussion of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh was to be postponed indefinitely. Azerbaijan rejected that project, simultaneously announcing (as of August 31 in Brussels) that it was not going to discuss anything related to Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, and a few days later, on September 13, it resorted to military aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia.

The Russian side not only did not follow up on its proposal after Azerbaijan's refusal but also showed absolute indifference regarding the aggression towards the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, leaving unanswered the official letter of the Armenian side to assist the Republic of Armenia based on bilateral legal agreements. Moreover, the Russian Federation conditioned the lack of record of the attack on Armenia and the resulting inaction under the false pretext that the interstate border between Armenia and Azerbaijan was not demarcated, thus willingly or unwittingly supporting the obviously wrong and highly dangerous thesis that the boundary between Armenia and Azerbaijan there is none. Therefore, the attack on the walls and the invasion of the territory of Armenia are also difficult to verify. With approximately the same mindset, Armenia's similar application still needs to receive a proper response within the CSTO framework, too.

Under these conditions, on October 6, 2022, in Prague, Armenia and Azerbaijan reaffirmed their commitment to the Alma-Ata Declaration, which was signed by the former Soviet republics, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, in 1991, 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 stayed the same in 2020, too, in the text of the tripartite statement of November 9. The only novelty was that, based on the results of the Prague reprimand, the EU decided to deploy a monitoring mission on the Armenian side of the interstate border between Armenia and Azerbaijan to contribute to the wall's stability.

RF has repeatedly, including in 2020. After the signing of the tripartite declaration on November 9, Nagorno-Karabakh was recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and the most recent and perhaps most significant of the document establishing strategic relations with Azerbaijan stated that it recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The Lachin Corridor was blocked on December 12, 2022, due to false protest actions organized by the Azerbaijani authorities in the control zone of the Russian peacekeeping troops. Already in April 2023, the Azerbaijani side, in the presence of Russian peacekeepers, set up an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin corridor. Although these actions were a clear and gross violation of the tripartite declaration, they were not retaliated against by the Russian Federation. Instead, on June 15, 2023, Russian peacekeepers provided active support to the attempted installation of the Azeri flag outside the scope of their mission and geographical area of responsibility on the sovereign territory of the RA, which was immediately followed by the complete blockade of the Lachin Corridor, bringing the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh to an absolute humanitarian disaster.

In the presence of Russian peacekeepers, the Azerbaijani side resorted to such steps as kidnapping Nagorno-Karabakh residents in the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the Lachin Corridor.

Unfortunately, similar practices of the Russian peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh are not new. On December 11, 2020, the violation of the contact line in Nagorno Karabakh, the illegal capture of Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher villages, and the capture and transfer of 60 Armenian service members to Baku took place in Nagorno Karabakh in the presence and with the permission of the representatives of the Russian peacekeeping force. At that time, the October 6, 2022 agreements were not reached. The same applies to the events of Parukh on March 24, 2022, and Saribab on August 1, 2022, when Azerbaijan again violated the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh. Firing by the Azerbaijani armed forces on agricultural workers in the presence of Russian peacekeepers, one of which ended with the killing of a tractor driver from Markert, the terrorizing of the Nagorno-Karabakh population with night lights and loudspeakers again in the presence of Russian peacekeepers, the thousands of violations of the regime by the Azerbaijani armed forces besides in the presence of Russian peacekeepers—this logic is the continuation.

We advise the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry to refrain from conjuring up the circumstances of the situation and thereby further complicating the case in the absence of actions of Russian peacekeepers in the direction of preventing the blocking of the Lachin Corridor or opening it after the siege.

It is also necessary to confirm that the Republic of Armenia is committed to establishing regional stability based on territorial integrity and mutual recognition of borders. At the same time, we consider the reopening of the Lachine Corridor as necessary for long-term peace; according to the 2020 tripartite declaration of November 9 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."