Azerbaijan Rejects Russia's Proposal to Postpone Artsakh Status

Azerbaijan finds Russia's proposal to postpone the status of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) unacceptable. This was stated by Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, according to local media outlets.

“It is no secret that the Russian side has suggested leaving the matter of Nagorno-Karabakh's status for future years. From the very first day, we have declared that this proposal is unacceptable for us,” said the minister of the aggressor country.

It should be noted that in early December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that during the quadrilateral agreement signed in Prague in early October, the Armenian side had closed the question of Nagorno-Karabakh's status, and afterwards the accusations that Russia has abandoned the proposal to leave the issue for future resolution are baseless. He emphasized that Moscow had proposed leaving the status issue for the future as far back as ten years ago.

Lavrov asserted that this approach has remained viable even after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, during the three meetings mediated by Russia between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Based on this foundation, according to Lavrov, Moscow included the point on the suspension of status in its version of the peace treaty, which was presented to the parties this spring. At that time, Baku expressed its willingness to discuss the issue, but after the document signed in Prague, they rejected it in Sochi.

“In late October in Sochi, we wanted to return to this issue and understand how prepared our partners were to move forward based on the gentleman's agreement, according to which all issues should be resolved, leaving the status for later. But when they came to Sochi, Pashinyan and Aliyev brought that document from Prague, which stated that they wanted to conclude a peace treaty in accordance with the UN Charter and the Almaty Declaration,” noted Lavrov.