VIDEO: 'Armenia Occupied 7 Regions of Azerbaijan for Decades' - Lavrov

As Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to seek ways to calm the situation in the Caucasus, the CSTO is also ready to assist. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made this statement in an interview with Kiselev.

“After the escalation of violence in September, about 300 people were killed on both sides, we received a request from Armenia, and the CSTO’s main council, along with experts, traveled to Armenia and brought a plan for deploying the CSTO mission on Armenia's border. This plan had existed for a long time, but the Armenian side was not in a hurry to finalize it. In Yerevan, during the CSTO council meeting, the package was ready, but the Armenian side refused, stating that their decision depended on condemning Azerbaijan’s actions in that document. Not everyone was ready to agree to that, and this was not about supporting one side or defending the other, but because this whole Nagorno-Karabakh story is a decades-old narrative,” said the Russian chief diplomat.

According to him, Armenia had occupied seven regions of Azerbaijan for decades, and the previous Armenian authorities rejected Russian mediation, wishing to retain the seized territories that did not belong to them and they had never claimed.

“Yes, Azerbaijan returned its rightful lands. Now both Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a document with the EU, indicating they are ready to sign a peace agreement according to the Alma-Ata document, with borders passing along the USSR boundaries. The situation here is multi-layered. The fact that the CSTO has prepared a document is significant progress, and if the parties are interested, that mission could be implemented within 2-3 days,” emphasized Lavrov.