YEREVAN: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has warned of the risk of a new war with Azerbaijan, alleging Baku of “genocide” in the breakaway Armenian-populated area of Nagorno-Karabakh, AFP reported on Friday.
The two countries have fought two wars over the mountainous enclave, and the signature of a peace agreement remains a distant outlook.
Armenian Prime Minister Does not Rule Out New War with Azerbaijan
Talks under the mediation of the US, EU, and Moscow have brought about very little progress. “So long as a peace agreement has not been inked and such a deal has not been ratified by the parliaments of the two sides, of course, a new war with Baku is very likely,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told AFP.
As the latest round of dialogue on July 15 in Brussels had failed to bring about a major breakthrough, the Armenian PM said that both the Russia and West needed to press Azerbaijan to lift its blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In autumn 2020, a Moscow-brokered truce deal saw Armenia cede swathes of territories it had controlled for several decades while Russia also deployed peacekeepers to the Lachin Corridor to ensure free passage between Karabakh and Armenia. _AFP
