YEREVAN, March 17. /ARKA/ Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu believes that the time has come for Armenia and Azerbaijan to switch to bilateral contacts.
In an interview with Kazakh Tengrinews.kz he said a very difficult work was being done in the context of Russian-Turkish relations and the latest operation was Nagorno-Karabakh.
“That is what I would like to call it, because a huge number of arguments, elements, motives were involved in. After all, it is a big problem when two fraternal peoples, two close neighbors, those with whom we lived, and we will continue to live in peace, harmony and friendship are at enmity,” he said.
According to Shoigu, it was necessary to speak and study the problem also with Turkish colleagues.
“Our president made a titanic effort to make all this happen (end of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone). And all had to be persuaded. That is, there was no one who would say: “I agree, just convince the other side.” He had to convince everyone, of course. And we spoke also with our Turkish colleagues,” he explained.
The Russian Defense Minister said in this context that the major achievement is that people have stopped killing each other.
“Secondly, I hope that now is the time for them to switch to bilateral contacts and talk to each other, start talking. I mean Armenia and Azerbaijan,”Shoigu added.
On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons.
After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the parties stopped at where they were at that time. The town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Karabakh and adjacent regions, prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons and bodies of the dead are being exchanged.–0-