Analysis

Armenian PM blames Azerbaijan for lack of Nagorno Karabakh progress

Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev is to blame for a lack of “concrete results” during negotiations aimed at solving the decades-long territorial dispute over the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) region.

Speaking in an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Mr Pashinyan stressed that the main reason for no progress was that Azerbaijan’s leadership was unwilling to accept a solution that is acceptable for the people of both countries and Nagorno Karabakh.

“When I was elected prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, I said that any possible solution to the Karabakh issue should be acceptable for the people of Armenia, for the people of Karabakh, and for the people of Azerbaijan,” he told RFE/RL, adding that as long as the Azeri side does not have a similar attitude, talks will remain ineffective.

Reacting to the interview, Leyla Abdullayeva, spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry slammed the Armenian PM’s statements, pointing to alleged ceasefire violations at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on July 17 for which she claimed that the Armenian military was responsible.