In a statement on Telegram late on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the US and EU were seeking publicity by trying to claim credit for the detente achieved through trilateral engagement between Baku, Yerevan, and Moscow, Anadolu Agency reported.
“The brusque and impudent approach of the West can also be seen in the efforts for normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. Neither regional specifics nor the sensitivity of the problem are taken into account,” she said.
“The true goals of Washington and Brussels are not to work out a compromise and balanced solutions, but self-promotion and squeezing Russia out of Transcaucasia,” she added, referring to the South Caucasus region.
Zakharova said Western emissaries are visiting Armenia more frequently to present “hastily concocted” initiatives that do not account for regional interests, hiding them behind the banner of the EU or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
These steps by the West threaten “the balance that was achieved in difficult conditions through agreements between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia,” she warned.
Conflict first broke out in the late 1980s, when both sides were under Soviet rule and Armenian forces captured swathes of territory near Karabakh, long recognized internationally as Azerbaijan’s territory. About 30,000 people died in the ensuing conflict.
Azerbaijan regained those territories in the 2020 fighting, which ended with a Russian-brokered truce and thousands of residents returning to homes from which they had fled. More than 6,500 people lost their lives in the six-week war.
Fighting suddenly picked up last month, with nearly 300 lives lost in the worst flare-up since 2020.
Amid heightened tensions, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) sent a “needs assessment team” to Armenia last week, a controversial move criticized by Azerbaijan, Russia, and Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu denounced the “unacceptable” decision, saying it was against the OSCE’s own operating rules.
ZZ/PR