Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev assessed Russia's peacekeeping mission in Karabakh as very successful.
"It [the peacekeeping mission] is being carried out very successfully, is in constant contact with the relevant structures of the Republic of Azerbaijan," he said on Friday at an online meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State.
The president stressed that for almost a month and a half since the signing of the trilateral statement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the full cessation of hostilities in Karabakh, only one incident was recorded, which, according to the Azerbaijani side, was provoked by "groups of so-called militias not controlled by the Armenian authorities." "The incident was settled within a day. The ceasefire regime is observed, and it will become stronger and stronger every day," Aliyev noted.
According to Aliyev, the conversation about the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh can already be held exclusively in the past tense.
"I completely agree with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin that when we talk about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we have to talk about what happened in the past. This is already history," he said.
The Azerbaijani leader said that the future of the region would largely depend on the assessment of the situation by the Armenian leadership, "whether it will be able to make the right steps to ensure that the peace is long-term and sustainable".
Putin's statement on Karabakh
Aliyev called Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement on Nagorno-Karabakh an important signal to those forces that want to prevent the fulfillment of the conditions stipulated in the trilateral statement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"Yesterday Vladimir Vladimirovich in an interview with the media once again pointed out that Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. This is not the first statement of this kind. I think it is a very important statement. And it is important for those revanchist forces in Armenia who are trying to revise the terms of the statement of November 10 (November 9, Moscow time). Unfortunately, there are such forces. And this is an important signal to those who try to prevent the implementation of this statement. We saw such attempts both during the war and after the statement was signed," Aliyev said.
He added that some "foreign circles" who were not happy that Russia played a leading role in the cease-fire would also like to revise the terms of the statement. "We have seen attempts by certain foreign circles who were dissatisfied with being left out of this issue, dissatisfied that Russia played a leading role in the cease-fire. And in every way they tried and, unfortunately, are still trying to bring some confusion. Especially concerning the situation in Armenia. To use certain levers, various infrastructure that was created in Armenia, including the Soros infrastructure, in order to create certain unrest in the Armenian society and essentially disrupt this statement," the Azerbaijani president said.
"Once again I would like to express my gratitude to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin for such an active participation and a huge contribution to resolving the conflict," he concluded.
At his annual press conference Thursday, Putin said that the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan from the standpoint of international law. He pointed out that this was Russia's position within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Talking about the status of the region, Putin said that it should be unchanged for now and the issue of its determination should be solved in the future.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS