By Felix Light
TBILISI (Reuters) – Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday that his government was not criticising Russian peacekeepers deployed around the breakway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but was concerned over their activities, Russian news agencies reported.
“We do not criticize Russian peacekeepers, but we do express concern about their activities, and this concern has long-standing roots”, state-owned news agency TASS quoted Pashinyan as saying.
Last month Azeri civilians identifying themselves as environmental activists blockaded the only road linking Armenia to the mainly ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
Russia and Armenia are allied via a mutual defence pact, but have been increasingly at loggerheads in recent weeks, as Russian peacekeepers have failed to reopen the road, which is known as the Lachin corridor.
Both Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh officials have warned of a humanitarian crisis in the blockaded region.
In December, Armenian news site Hetq quoted Pashinyan as saying that Moscow should make way for an international peacekeeping mission if it is unable to reopen the road.
Pashinyan also said on Tuesday that Armenia would not hold drills on its territory in 2023 with the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Russian-led alliance of post-Soviet countries.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought repeatedly over Nagorno-Karabakh, which broke away from Baku after a war in the early 1990s.
In 2020, Azerbaijan retook territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a second war that ended in a Moscow-brokered ceasefire and the deployment of Russian troops to the Lachin corridor.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Gareth Jones)
