The Prime minister of Armenia went to Moscow and met with the Russian President Putin on Wednesday. Armenia and Russia are having a lot of problems with each other.
Putin and Nikol Pashinyan met to talk after attending a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, which is an economic alliance dominated by Moscow. The talks happened the day after Putin started his fifth term as President in a fancy ceremony at the Kremlin.
In short, Putin briefly commented at the beginning of the talks that trade between the two countries was increasing, but he also mentioned some concerns about security in the region.
Pashinyan, who last went to Moscow in December, said that “some problems have built up since then. ”
Armenia and Russia are not as close as they used to be because of a conflict in September. Azerbaijan wanted to take back control of the Karabakh area from Armenia, and this ended a long period of rule by Armenian separatists.
Armenian leaders say that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh did not stop Azerbaijan’s attack. Moscow has a military base in Armenia. It says its troops did not have permission to get involved and has denied the accusations.
The Kremlin is upset because Pashinyan is trying to make friends with the West and move away from Moscow’s control over his country’s security and economy.
While Pashinyan was in Moscow on Wednesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said the country will stop giving money to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is run by Russia. Armenia stopped being part of the group because Pashinyan wanted to make stronger connections with the European Union and NATO.
Russia was upset that Armenia decided to join the International Criminal Court because they had indicted Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Moscow is worried about the conflict between Ukraine and Yerevan, but they are trying to not make a big deal out of it.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that there are some problems in our relationship with another country, but we are still willing to talk and work things out.
Tag: Armenia
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Prime minister of Armenia holds discussions with Putin in Moscow
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Azerbaijan and Armenia to strive towards peace agreement
Armenia and Azerbaijan will work on being friendlier to each other and will trade prisoners they caught during the recent fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two neighbors have been fighting over some land for many years.
On Thursday night, both countries said they have a big opportunity for peace that they have wanted for a long time.
Both countries want to make an agreement for peace by the end of the year.
Azerbaijan quickly took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September, ending Armenian rule that had been in place for 30 years. The region is officially part of Azerbaijan, according to the international community.
Most of the 120,000 Armenian people left and went to Armenia nearby.
On Thursday, two countries said they will try to sign a peace treaty that respects each other’s borders.
Baku is allowing 32 Armenian soldiers to go home, and Yerevan is letting go of two soldiers, as a sign of kindness.
Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, said that he is happy about the statement and thinks it is a big improvement in Armenia and Azerbaijan’s relationship. The United States praised a step that helps build trust.
Another action is when Armenia backed Azerbaijan’s request to host the COP29 climate summit by giving up its own candidacy. Azerbaijan said it will help Armenia join a group that talks about climate.
The two countries asked for help from other countries in their efforts.
The prime minister of Armenia and the president of Azerbaijan made a deal during their discussions.
The two leaders have met many times to talk about making things normal again with the help of the EU, the US and Russia.
Conversations had stopped recently because Azerbaijan didn’t want to take part in discussions in the US and Spain. They said they thought Western countries were unfair. The two countries started talking again in Iran at the end of October. -
Russian assistance reaches struggling ethnic Armenians
Nine months after Azerbaijan blocked a road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, a Russian truck has arrived in the region bringing humanitarian assistance.
The help did not go through the only way connecting it to Armenia, which has been closed since December. Instead, it went through a road in Azerbaijan.
For many months, the 120,000 people living in Nagorno-Karabakh have experienced a lack of necessary things.
But, some people who live here at first tried to block the help from coming.
According to Armenian reports, they agreed to let the shipment of food and toiletries pass, but only if Azerbaijan agreed to reopen the Lachin Corridor route to Armenia.
Azerbaijan said that it had given permission to use both routes at the same time through the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
For a long time, people have been upset about long lines and not being able to find bread and basic things like soap and toilet paper in the stores. This happened because Azerbaijan stopped the Lachin Corridor, saying that Armenia was using it to secretly bring in weapons.
The two countries in the South Caucasus have had two wars since the Soviet Union ended in 1990s.
Karabakh is an area within the borders of Azerbaijan, but Armenia has been in charge of it since 1994. The Azerbaijani forces took back all the land around the small area after the war in 2020.
This has made it more dangerous for ethnic Armenians to feel safe there.
Last week, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, complained that Russia does not want or cannot control the Lachin Corridor, despite deploying 3000 peacekeepers for the safety of the area.
“We’re seeing that Russia is unexpectedly moving away from the region, and we don’t know the reason,” he said to La Repubblica newspaper.
He said that Russia’s war in Ukraine shows that Russia needs weapons for itself. He also said that Armenia relying on only one source for security was a big mistake.
Armenia said it would hold exercises together with US forces this week. Moscow called these exercises “unfriendly steps”. Russia has a military base in Armenia that is always there.
A photo of Mr Pashinyan’s wife and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, shaking hands in Kyiv last week made the situation more intense. Anna Hakobyan went to deliver help and meet the Armenian people living there. This showed she supports the country during their conflict with Russia.
Armenia is still part of Russia’s military alliance called the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. However, Pashinyan mentioned earlier this year that if the CSTO decided to leave Armenia, he might consider putting its membership in the alliance on hold.
President Vladimir Putin said that Armenia did not end its alliance with Russia, but he also said that Armenia essentially accepted that Azerbaijan has control over the area.
“He said, during a meeting about economy in Vladivostok, that if Armenia admitted that Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan, what actions should we take. ”
“I expect the leaders of Azerbaijan, just like they said before and are saying now, to not have any desire for any sort of forced removal of people based on their ethnicity. ”