Pashinyan says Armenians might leave Karabakh, blames Russia for lack of protection

(Patria) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the probability of ethnic Armenians leaving the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh is growing and blamed Russia for not ensuring their safety.

If 120,000 people head through the Lachin corridor to Armenia, the small South Caucasus country could face a humanitarian and political crisis, Reuters reports.

"If appropriate conditions are not created for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their
homes and there are no effective mechanisms to protect them from ethnic cleansing, the probability that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see leaving their homeland as the only way to save their lives and identity is growing," Pashinyan said in an address to the nation.

"The responsibility for such a development of events will fall entirely on Azerbaijan, which has adopted a policy of ethnic cleansing, and on the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.

The Armenian-Russian strategic partnership "is not enough to ensure Armenia's external security," he added.

Last week, Azerbaijan achieved a victory over the ethnic Armenians who have controlled the Karabakh region since the collapse of the Soviet Union. An advisor to the leader of the Karabakh Armenians told Reuters earlier on Sunday that the population would leave because they feel unsafe under Azerbaijani rule.

Russia acted as a guarantor of the peace agreement that ended the 44-day war in Karabakh three years ago, and many Armenians blame Moscow for not protecting the region. Russian officials say Pashinyan is to blame for mishandling the crisis and have repeatedly said that
Armenia, which borders Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, has few other
friends in the region.

"The government will accept our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh with full attention," Pashinyan said.

He warned that some unidentified forces are trying to instigate a coup against him and accused Russian media of engaging in an information war against him.
"Some of our partners are increasingly making efforts to expose our security vulnerabilities, endangering not only our external but also our internal security and stability, while violating all norms of etiquette and correctness in diplomatic and interstate relations, including obligations undertaken by treaties," Pashinyan said in his Sunday address.

"In this context, it is necessary to transform, supplement, and enrich the instruments of external and internal security of the Republic of Armenia," he said.