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The situation in the South Caucasus remains fragile, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini in an interview on the sidelines of his working visit to Greece on June 27.

“While Armenia through its actions aspires to relaunch comprehensive peace negotiations, including on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and thus bring stability and peace to the region, Azerbaijan continues its policy of provocative actions and threats of use of force,” he said.

“After the situation unfolded in Ukraine, the Azerbaijani armed forces invaded the village of Parukh in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was preceded by constant shelling of villages and civilian infrastructure, urging the peaceful Armenian population of neighboring villages to leave their homes under the threat of use of force, disruption of the operation of the gas pipeline for several weeks amid the unprecedented cold weather, etc.

“Currently, when the world focuses its attention on Ukraine, Azerbaijan may be tempted to launch a large-scale provocation at any moment. Hence, it is extremely important for the international community to take effective steps to prevent the attempts of destabilizing the situation in the South Caucasus,” the top official said.

Asked whether he is optimistic about the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization, Mirzoyan underlined Armenia has constructively engaged in dialogue with Azerbaijan on general normalization of the relations, delimitation, and border security between the two countries and the unblocking of regional economic links and transport communications in line with the Russian-brokered agreements dated January 11 and November 26, 2021 as well as the agreements reached in Brussels.

“We reiterate our commitment to work constructively in all directions, and I want to emphasize that the process would have been much smoother and much more effective if Azerbaijan had refrained from its dangerous maximalism and Armenophobic rhetoric, holding numerous Armenian prisoners of war and other detained persons in captivity, destroying Armenian cultural and religious heritage, hindering the access of international humanitarian organizations to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, etc.

“Overall, we believe that despite all the blood and hatred the region witnessed, there is a real opportunity for peace in the South Caucasus. Armenia has repeatedly reaffirmed its readiness to establish long-term stability and open an era of peaceful development in the region. At the same time, it is obvious that these efforts cannot be one-sided, and we are expecting a similarly constructive approach and sincere practical steps from the Azerbaijani side towards this end,” the minister said.