Armenia holding peace efforts hostage with 'deliberate tension': Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has said that peace efforts with Armenia are being held “hostage” to Yerevan’s policy of “deliberate tension and revanchism".

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Armenia continued to use the UN Security Council as a tool for its “political, military and informational manipulation campaign".

“Armenia’s appeal to the Security Council on groundless allegations of ‘worsening humanitarian situation’ and ‘continued blockade’ in the region yet again comes at a time when Armenia itself deliberately and intentionally obstructs all the efforts made through international partners to find a balanced, law-based and reasonable solution on the ground,” the statement said.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when Armenia's military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Baku during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement and also opened the door to normalisation. Tensions, however, have risen in recent months on issues including the Lachin road, the only land route giving Armenia access to Karabakh.

Recalling that Armenia’s efforts came after Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint at the entrance of the Lachin road, the ministry said Yerevan "has started propaganda campaign worldwide, imposing series of military and other obstructions for the normal functioning of the border checkpoint, as well as for the use of other routes, such as Aghdam-Khankendi road."

It said an agreement was reached for the delivery of humanitarian cargo to Karabakh and to hold a meeting between residents of the two sides in Yevlakh, but Yerevan “backstepped” at the last moment by “introducing politically motivated and illegitimate preconditions and various pretexts.”