Ani Badalyan Spokesperson for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, responded to the remarks of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the incident near Hakari bridge in Lachin corridor. The response reads:
The incident of June 15 took place not in the Lachin Corridor, as the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry notes, but in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, on the Armenian side of the Hakari Bridge.
There is a clear contradiction in the interpretation of the Russian side. If, due to the lack of demarcation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is not possible to say exactly where the border line passes, and this is the reason for the ongoing problems, as the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry claims, then the question arises, on what basis and principle the Azerbaijani flag was being installed on this particular part of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, on our side of the bridge.
It is not clear why Russian peacekeepers participated in that operation in Azerbaijan, when both the purpose and even the location of the operation were clearly outside the scope of the peacekeepers’ functions and responsibility. We remind that the only relevant function of the Russian peacekeepers in that area was to keep the 5 km wide corridor of Lachin under control.
By the way, after the June 15 incident, the Azerbaijani side completely blocked the Lachin Corridor, as a result of which even humanitarian supplies, including food and medicine, are not transported to Nagorno-Karabakh, including by the ICRC, and patients in grave condition are not being transported from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian medical institutions, gas and electricity supply continues to be disrupted.
In conclusion, she called on the parties that signed the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020 and other trilateral statements to steadily fulfill their commitments instead of looking for excuses.
