Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that he did not understand why Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan refused Azerbaijan's condition to return peaceful refugees to Shusha. He said this when answering questions from the media on the air of Russia-1 TV channel.
According to Putin, the question about Shusha "emerged during this conflict, this crisis". "On October 19-20 I had a series of telephone conversations with both President [Azerbaijan Ilham] Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan. Then the armed forces of Azerbaijan regained control over a small part, the southern part of Karabakh," the president of Russia said. - "On the whole, I managed to convince President Aliyev that it was possible to stop the fighting, but a prerequisite on his part was the return of refugees, including to the city of Shusha".
"Unexpectedly for me the position of our Armenian partners was formulated in such a way that it is unacceptable for them, and Prime Minister Pashinyan told me directly that he saw it as a threat to the interests of Armenia and Karabakh. Even now I am not very clear what this threat would be, bearing in mind that the return of civilians was supposed to take place with the Armenian side maintaining control over that part of the territory of Karabakh, including Shusha, and bearing in mind our peacekeepers," Putin noted. "The Prime Minister told me then: "No, we can't do it, we will fight, we will fight". Therefore, accusations of some kind of treachery against him have no grounds," Putin said. "The other thing is that it was right or wrong, but here we can't talk about any betrayal", the Russian President is convinced.
Safety of people returning to Karabakh
The Russian leader called the situation with Armenians returning to Karabakh a very important and sensitive issue. "It is precisely to ensure the safety of those people that a Russian peacekeeping contingent is being deployed," he explained.
The Russian President reminded that both the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan, as well as the head of the Russian state, signed a settlement agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh. "We all understand very well, we are aware that, based on the gravity of the conflict, based on the fact that the wounds have not yet healed, of course, they are very fresh, a lot of losses, trouble has come to many homes, many families and in Azerbaijan and Armenia, so it takes time for everything to calm down, so that people feel that peaceful life has returned to their hearts, their souls - that's the most important thing," Putin said. In his opinion, "before that we should think about the real security of people, including refugees, returning from both sides". "And this mission is entrusted to the Russian peacekeepers," the head of state repeated.
Putin reminded that "the question of returning five and then two districts to Azerbaijan, which were under Armenia's control, was raised for a long time. "In 2013, within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia formulated the conditions that, in our opinion, could start the peace process. All participants of the OSCE Minsk Group, including the co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States of America - all agreed with this and supported it," the Russian leader stated. He drew attention to what was at the heart of those proposals, calling "the return of five regions controlled by Armenia and then two more, the creation of a corridor that would connect Karabakh and Armenia in the Lachin region of Azerbaijan and recognition of the status quo of Karabakh itself without fixing its final status," and the return of refugees from both sides to their homes, which is a mandatory requirement of international humanitarian law.
"Indeed, in my opinion, I have always said to our Armenian and Azerbaijani friends too, this would be a solution to the issue. But, unfortunately, we have approached the final decision on this base several times, if we had managed to do it, we would have reached agreements on this base, there would have been no war, it is true," Putin stressed. "I am absolutely convinced of it even now," he repeated. "Unfortunately, when we approached, it seemed that we were very close to resolving the issue at this base, on the one hand, there were obstacles that we were unable to overcome. In the end, the case turned into a bloody armed conflict that we all had just witnessed," the Russian leader pointed out.
"As for the city of Shusha, the question of transferring Shusha has never been raised," Putin said. He noted that "the final status of Karabakh was transferred for the future, everyone had to agree that the status quo as an unrecognized state is preserved".
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS