This week Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Yerevan and Baku to reduce the tensions over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which escalated once again. When holding the post of Russian President, Medvedev repeatedly met with his counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. This time the meeting took place in the form of shuttle diplomacy. And it seemed that Medvedev was welcomed more warmly in Baku than in Yerevan, where there are gripes about Moscow.
The current leadership of Armenia has received and receives support from the Russian Federation in the form of soft loans and humanitarian aid. If Azerbaijan acquired weapons for money not only from Russia, but from other countries, which is quite natural for a newly-formed state that is engaged in the creation of a national army, Armenia did not spent much finance on weapons for its army, receiving Russian weaponry almost for nothing. On the part of the Russian authorities, it was an act of a goodwill, and the Armenian leadership should probably be grateful to Russia. ‘’Gratitude is not the right of someone who is thanked, it is the duty of the one who thanks. It is foolish to demand gratitude, it is meanness not to be grateful,’’ the historian Vasily Klyuchevskii wrote.
Vestnik Kavkaza suggests that its readers should draw conclusions about the relationship between Moscow, Yerevan and Baku by reading the speeches of Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev.
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
Dear Dmitry Anatolyevich, we welcome you to Yerevan. Your official visit is a very good opportunity to discuss the range of issues on our bilateral agenda. Unfortunately, your visit takes place in hard times: Azerbaijan has once again tried to solve the Karabakh conflict by military means. An attempt was made to conduct a massive operation using the full range of weapons available in the arsenal of Azerbaijan. This is a crime, but these weapons were used against civilians – children and the elderly were killed. But thanks to the professional actions of the soldiers of the Defense Army, the attempt failed.
Dmitry Anatolyevich, I'm sure you know that a great response was provoked in Armenia by the fact that Azerbaijanis used in full measure weapons they have acquired in recent years from Russia. This is understandable, because the people of Armenia consider Russia to be our closest ally and friend. Today there is a situation in which we do not rule out another provocation, because in the media sphere these privations continue today. And we, of course, not having big illusions, expect from the OSCE Minsk Group and from our allies targeted applications and specific actions. Because the second attempt, I think, will lead to a large-scale operation, because from the very beginning, as a member state of the Ceasefire Agreement in 1994, we could not stay away from it all. And, of course, Dmitry Anatolyevich, I regret that some of our partners from the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union refused to come to Yerevan to participate in a pre-planned event. I do not know how much they helped Azerbaijan with this, but for sure they undermined the credibility of our organization, there is no doubt about it.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Dear Dmitry Anatolyevich, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen. Once again I want to warmly welcome Mr Medvedev to Azerbaijan, welcome!
We place great importance in your visit. Today within the framework of the negotiations in the extended format and tête-à-tête we discussed important issues of bilateral cooperation and regional problems. Of course, we discussed in detail issues related to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, especially in view of the recent escalation in the conflict zone.
We very much appreciate that the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, is on an official visit to Baku today. I invited Mr Medvedev to visit Azerbaijan. I know that the visit was in his plans, but the fact that it takes place today we see as another indicator of the friendly, partnership relations with Azerbaijan. We all know that Mr Medvedev scheduled an official visit to Armenia on April 7th and taking into account the current situation in the conflict zone, the decision to come to Azerbaijan on April 8th is very much appreciated by us. This indicates once again that Russia's relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan are of great importance. So it is for us. For us, relations with Russia are of great importance. We value these relations, appreciate them and try to build and strengthen them.
With regard to the settlement of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, unfortunately, for many years it has not found its solution, for many years Azerbaijani lands have been under occupation. Not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan have been under occupation for over 20 years. The entire Azerbaijani population was expelled from there, all the houses and historical monuments were destroyed. We have more than 700 thousand internally displaced persons from the conflict zone alone. If you add the more than 250 thousand refugees from Armenia, when the truce was reached in 1994, we have one of the highest percentages of refugees and internally displaced persons per capita.
There are mechanisms for the resolution of the conflict, there are four UN Security Council resolutions demanding withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces from Azerbaijani territory. Unfortunately, they have not been not implemented.
Russia, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, plays an important role in resolving the conflict. We appreciate its role very much. This has especially manifested itself against the background of another armed provocation by Armenia, when our positions were subjected to attacks, including damage caused to human settlements. More than 400 houses located close to the contact line of the troops were damaged. Of these, several dozen were completely destroyed. We have casualties, including among the civilian population.
Under these conditions the Russian side has taken the initiative to de-escalate the situation. Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin called me and the President of Armenia, and expressed his concern and desire to help the parties to de-escalate the situation. We reacted positively to these signals, with the participation of the leadership of the General Staff of the Russian Federation a meeting was held in Moscow between the heads of the general staffs of the three countries, in which it was decided to cease hostilities. We strictly abide by this decision and we hope that the Armenian side will also be committed to it.
I would like to say once again that Azerbaijan stands for the negotiating process. Negotiations have been conducted for 20 years. Any charges by the Armenian side that Azerbaijan is the initiator of the escalation are absolutely groundless. Because the nature of the clashes that took place earlier this month indicates that we did not have and do not have any intentions of starting a large-scale military action. We are simply defending our positions, defending the peaceful lives of our citizens. Therefore, a resolution of the conflict is in interests of Azerbaijan, and I am sure it is in the interests of Armenia too. Russia as a neighbor and friend of both countries is also interested in the speediest settlement of the conflict.
We will continue the negotiating process. We welcome the initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group, which recently visited the region, and we hope that the appeals of the OSCE Minsk Group that the status quo should be changed will also be heard in Armenia. Changing the status quo and the beginning of the de-occupation of Azerbaijani territory are the main conditions for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict. Once this happens, there will be peace and cooperation in the region. This will benefit all the countries in the region.
With regard to the other agenda, today we discussed in detail economic issues, trade and economic relations, energy, transport, relations in the sphere of humanitarian cooperation. There is a good, positive tendency in all these directions. The intergovernmental commission works actively. It works specifically in these spheres with great efficiency.
We consider relations with Russia to be relations of a strategic character and the same attitude we see on the part of the Russian government, the Russian side. Mr Medvedev's visit reaffirms the nature of these relations and makes a great contribution to the strengthening of our cooperation.
Once again, Dmitry Anatolyevich, thank you for being with us today, and we wish you all the best. And I want to express my deep respect for the Russian people and wish progress and prosperity to the Russian state.
