Russia has recently become overly active in promoting arms race and increasing the quality of weaponry, Armenian human rights activist Artur Sakunts said, the Aravot newspaper reported.
“Involvement of only one military factor in the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement implies a great danger and fundamentally contradicts one of the three basic principles of the OSCE Minsk Group – the principle of a peaceful settlement – as the increase in militarization is fraught with inevitable increase in the likelihood of a military action,” Sakunts said.
“Instead of the guided steps in line with the principle of peaceful settlement and reducing the level of militarization, just the opposite occurs,” he said. “One of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Russia, is taking steps that lead to an arms race.”
He noted that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, Russia, has even broken military parity, having sold arms to Azerbaijan and not given Armenia the promised weaponry worth $200 million.
Sakunts added that as a result of Russia's active diplomatic measures the OSCE Minsk Group format has been distorted in recent years, and Russia is trying to oust the US and France from the format of the talks.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.