President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said at the VIII Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 12 that the issue of Artsakh’s status has been resolved.
“The question of the status of Karabakh is no longer raised, it has been resolved. And this is not our decision; this is the decision of today’s Armenian leadership,” Putin said.
He also stated that “Armenia has recognized that Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan,” referring to the statement signed in Prague in October 2022 that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity based on the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration.
To remind, Armenia signed a declaration recognizing the borders of the former republics of the USSR with the proviso that the issue of the borders of Azerbaijan should be resolved in negotiations between Baku and Stepanakert.
The President of the Russian Federation quoted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who, according to him, stated that Armenia recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan and that “the question of the status of Karabakh no longer arises.”
Putin also recalled the prevention of ethnic cleansing. “I hope that the Azerbaijani leadership, as they have always told us, and still say, is not interested in any ethnic cleansing,” the Russian president added.
He also denied statements about a “U-turn” in Russia’s relations with Armenia. Speaking about his relationship with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Putin said they “keep in touch.” “We don’t have any problems here with Armenia, and there are no problems with Prime Minister Pashinyan,” Putin said, adding that Pashinyan recently sent him “a long and detailed letter.”
Later that day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that “Moscow expects that, taking into account the previously reached understanding, the Lachin corridor will also be unblocked in parallel with the Aghdam route shortly, and then humanitarian aid will flow into the region unhindered in both directions on a regular basis".
She also expressed hope that the stabilization of the humanitarian situation in Karabakh will create conditions “for launching a dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert and resuming regular work on the implementation of the entire complex of trilateral agreements reached at the top level in 2020-2022 on the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations."
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