And Aliyev “carried out an anti-terror operation” in Artsakh, Moscow repeated Baku’s assessment
Two Russian officials recently issued another dose of messages. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin emphasized that Moscow’s role in the settlement process between Armenia and Azerbaijan has no alternative. “Under the auspices of Russia, at the initiative of President Vladimir Putin, the foundations of the settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan were created. The role of President Vladimir Putin in regulating Armenian-Azerbaijani relations is unique,” Galuzin said in a conversation with Rossiya-24 TV.
The Russian diplomat emphasized again that Moscow is ready to provide a platform for Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on the peace treaty. Face-to-face contact between Yerevan and Baku has been interrupted for a long time. The Azerbaijani side boycotts the Western platforms, and the Armenian side does not respond to Russia’s public proposals to hold the negotiations there. Galuzin claims that the Russian side has exclusive materials that are necessary for the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
After the ethnic cleansing of the population from Artsakh, Azerbaijan stopped reminding the Russian side that “Russian peacekeepers are temporarily in Nagorno-Karabakh”. Now, Galuzin addressed this topic, emphasizing that Moscow will discuss the conditions of deployment of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh only with Baku. “Taking into account the radical change in the situation in Karabakh, the conditions for the stay of our peacekeepers are discussed only with the Azerbaijani side. As for the extension of the powers of the Russian peacekeeping contingent after November 2025, it will depend on the situation in the region, the demand for their further presence and the relevant agreements with Baku.” Galuzin also added that Russia is ready to facilitate the safe return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians if they wish.
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And here he made a “shocking” record… “Unfortunately, most of the Karabakh Armenians have left the region. It was their difficult but voluntary choice…” In other words, after keeping the people of Artsakh under siege and starvation conditions for months, official Moscow has taken another step to justify Baku’s “special operation.” The time is not far when Moscow will one day announce that the military-political leadership of Artsakh “voluntarily” surrendered to the Azerbaijani side and ended up in Baku prisons. As we can see, the fantasy of the Russians in justifying their inaction in Artsakh is quite inept and ridiculous.
Instead, Moscow aims to maintain the presence of Russian peacekeepers even after 2025 and is ready to defend all Azerbaijani theses to achieve the goal. But what if they have somehow found themselves in a trap of their own making? There are no Armenians in Artsakh, while Galuzin says that “it is important to create conditions for the return of those who wish to return, properly ensuring their rights and security” and that “they are ready to provide all possible assistance to this process, including through the Russian peacekeeping contingent, whose presence is of great importance.”
Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mikhail Evdokimov gave an interview to “Izvestia” periodical, and he, in turn, made a number of remarkable assessments. He also emphasized that Moscow is ready to provide maximum support to Yerevan and Baku in the negotiations on the peace treaty. Emphasizing that Armenia and Azerbaijan are now directly exchanging peace treaty drafts, Evdokimov said that, in his opinion, what the Azerbaijani side is proposing are standard formulations and articles, and based on Baku’s proposals, according to the ambassador, “negotiations can be quite fast be completed.”
“We are ready to provide the Moscow platform; if necessary, we are ready to provide our expertise, our advice on the text. Here we have an excellent cooperation with our Azerbaijani partners”, said Evdokimov. Evdokimov responded to the observation that the issue of the transport corridor from the central part of Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan remains unresolved. “This topic is essential for the Azerbaijani side. That is the availability of transport routes between the main territory of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. During the first Karabakh War, all communications were interrupted, and the electricity supply to Nakhichevan was stopped. Therefore, the security issue of this route (approximately 46 km) is not an abstract topic for Azerbaijan.
There are also tunnels and a bridge here. The Russian Federation was ready to restore this route with its funds quickly. The Armenian side is delaying the negotiations for various reasons, which are unclear to me.” The diplomat also reminded that last year, Baku and Tehran signed an agreement on the construction of a railway through the territory of Iran. “It is a little more, 60 km, the route is more difficult, but these works are already underway. All these years, automobile cargo transportation between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan passed through the territory of Iran,” said the ambassador, emphasizing the railway construction from Turkey to Nakhichevan.
“Accordingly, we will be able to transport goods from Russia to Turkey through the territory of Azerbaijan, Iran, and Nakhichevan,” said Evdokimov. The Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan did not forget to record that “the issue of Karabakh is closed,” and “based on the proposals made by Baku, it seems to me that these negotiations can be completed quite quickly,” says the ambassador and summed up: “We are ready to provide our advice on the text if necessary. We have excellent relations with our Azerbaijani partners here.”
Moreover, according to him, “Azerbaijan is determined to finish the negotiations on the signing of the peace treaty very quickly.” Mikhail Evdokimov also addressed the fate of the Russian peacekeeping mission after 2025. Speaking about the deployment of their mission in the document dated November 9, 2020, the ambassador avoided talking about why the people of Artsakh left the homeland after “protecting” the Armenians in Artsakh. But the Russian ambassador did not avoid repeating the assessment of official Baku that an “anti-terrorist operation” was carried out in Nagorno-Karabakh… Here is the record of the Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan. “Now, after the end of the anti-terrorist operation, the Russian peacekeepers are patrolling the area together with the Azerbaijani forces, protecting the buildings and cultural structures. The dates of the next round of negotiations between Moscow and Baku regarding our peacekeeping contingent are currently being agreed with the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan.
These are the complete Azerbaijani demands and formulations by two Russian officials. If there are still naive figures in Armenia who repeated with a severe expression that “Russia does not need a corridor,” now they can breathe a sigh of relief after reading the recent interviews of Galuzin and Evdokimov.
At the beginning of last November, the official Moscow made a clear presentation on Russian border guards controlling the transport connection between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. Official Moscow announced that the transport link between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan should be controlled not by Armenians but by Russian security service border guards. Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, claimed that this was mentioned in the tripartite documents signed on November 9 and after that. ”
According to the tripartite agreements I mentioned, transport communication between Azerbaijan and the autonomous republic of Nakhichevan should be controlled by the border service of the Russian Security Service.” Let’s remember that the Armenian side claimed that it has never, under any document, undertaken the obligation to hand over the border control to a third country, and Point 9 of the statement of November 9 states that Armenia guarantees the safety of transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan to organize the unhindered movement of citizens, vehicles, and cargo.
The bodies of the border guard service of the FSB of Russia carry out the control over transport communication. In that statement and any other document published to date, it is not clearly stated how the border guard services of Russia will carry out the control, with what mechanisms, and at what points. Moscow, however, regularly claims that it is ready to support regional de-blockade under those conditions. Here is the context in which Moscow hints that the parties are close to a solution and prepared to advance the settlement by providing the necessary assistance to open transport communications in the region. Let’s not forget that the Russian Foreign Ministry even hinted on one occasion that the “Crossroads of Peace” program presented by Pashinyan is in line with the proposals discussed at the Moscow initiative.
Emma GABRIELIAN
“Aravot” daily, 13.02.2024
The publication was produced within the project “Competing Narratives” implemented by Media Initiatives Center and n-ost.
