Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a tripartite meeting in Sochi aimed at discussing ways to solve the crisis in Karabakh.
Putin said - in his statements after the meeting - that holding a summit on Karabakh showed that the parties can agree on the future, and that everyone is interested in normalizing relations.
He added that the tripartite meeting between Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in Sochi witnessed the holding of 3 sessions of negotiations to resolve the conflict in the region.
The Russian president described the meeting as "useful", saying that the summit created a positive atmosphere for future agreements, and we will follow up on the tripartite dialogue to achieve lasting peace. He made it clear that not everything was agreed on about Nagorno-Karabakh, but Russia will do everything to normalize relations between the two countries.
bloody confrontations
This summit comes a month after border clashes that left 286 people dead, the highest death toll since the war in 2020 to control the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Prior to the summit, Putin stressed the need to end the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, and said that the conflict has been going on for decades, "therefore, there is a need to end it."
Prior to the summit, the Russian president met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for two hours, and Putin said that "the most important thing is to ensure peace and create conditions for development," expressing hope that the two sides will take steps towards a settlement of the conflict.
For his part, the Armenian Prime Minister said that his priority is the Azerbaijani withdrawal from areas in Karabakh controlled by Russian peacekeepers, and the release of prisoners of war.
Putin (right) during his meeting with the Armenian Prime Minister before the trilateral summit (Reuters)
Russian role
On the other hand, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared that his country relies more on the Russian role in normalizing relations with Armenia, expressing his gratitude to Putin for his role in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
During a bilateral meeting with Putin before the summit, he said that the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is over, adding that normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia can be achieved "on the basis of the five basic principles proposed by Baku."
Last Friday, Putin said, "With regard to the peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, we are doing everything we can to achieve a comprehensive normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan," noting that Azerbaijan and Armenia were part of one country in the recent past.
On September 27, 2020, the Azerbaijani army launched an operation to liberate its lands occupied by Armenia in the Karabakh region, and the 44-day battles left 6,500 people dead on both sides, and the war ended with an Armenian military defeat and a peace agreement under the auspices of Moscow, providing for Baku to regain control of the occupied provinces. .
But sporadic confrontations continued despite the presence of Russian peacekeeping forces in Karabakh at the recognized border between the two countries, as happened last September.