The Russian side is in favor of opening the Aghdam-Khankendi road to provide the Karabakh economic region of Azerbaijan with humanitarian supplies. This was stated by Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyansky during the UN Security Council meeting on the situation around the Lachin road.
Polyansky said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov personally proposed to open the Aghdam-Khankendi road during a July 25 meeting in Moscow with Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan. The diplomat stressed that Russia sees this as a realistic compromise to reduce tension in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
Polyansky clarified that Moscow's proposal consisted of the simultaneous operation of the Lachin road and the Aghdam-Khankendi road for the transportation of civilians and non-military goods to Karabakh. He expressed confidence that this event would accelerate the start of direct interaction between the Azerbaijani authorities and the Karabakh Armenians.
It should be noted that Dmitry Polyansky never mentioned the separatist project in Karabakh in his speech, using only the wording "Armenian population of Karabakh", thereby emphasizing that it is a question of the interaction between the authorized Azerbaijani authorities with their citizens.
Conflict settlement directions
Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN called on the parties to take practical actions that will reduce the tension that is growing this month on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia and in the zone of temporary deployment of Russian peacekeepers.
"The Russian Federation, with the support of both sides, is making every effort to resolve the current crisis as soon as possible, as well as to promote the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as a whole. The set of statements by the President of Russia, the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia in 2020-2022 remains the only roadmap for reconciliation of Baku and Yerevan",
Dmitry Polyansky said
The diplomat once again listed the areas in which it is necessary to put into practice the settlement of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia: the delimitation and demarcation of the border, the opening of all transport links, the development of a peace treaty, the establishment of a dialogue at the political and expert level. He drew attention to the fact that there is progress in all these areas, and Russia intends to further assist the parties in resolving the remaining issues.
Criticism of Armenian policy
He also pointed out that the future of the Armenian population of Karabakh is "within the legal field of Azerbaijan", which is determined, among other things, by Azerbaijan and Armenia's mutual recognition of each other's territorial integrity in accordance with the 1991 Almaty Declaration. In this regard, Polyansky urged not to politicize humanitarian tasks.
"Those who sincerely follow the scenario based on the fundamental interests of the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples should put aside any geopolitical and various domestic political considerations. We also call for the responsible use of the Security Council platform in this context. In any case, problems must be resolved between Baku and Yerevan, and no imposed schemes and solutions will replace their dialogue",
Dmitry Polyansky said.
Concluding his speech, the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN stressed that Moscow would continue to encourage the Armenian-Azerbaijani dialogue so that Baku and Yerevan could live in good-neighbourly conditions.
