Leaked recording sheds light on Karabakh settlement early stage

PanARMENIAN.Net - An audio recording from a conversation between former Armenian Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has leaked online.

In the audiotape published by the Telegram Channel Baghramyan 26, Lukashenko is heard claiming that Azerbaijan "has offered $5 billion" to Armenia for the implementation of "the first phase" of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Sargsyan says then that he is ready to give "$6 billion to Azerbaijan" but is interrupted by Lukashenko.

Sargsyan's office revealed on Tuesday that the recording is from a non-public conversation the two had during the CSTO Collective Security Council’s narrow-format presidential meeting in Yerevan on October 14, 2016.

"The office of the Third President of the Republic of Armenia accepts the publication of the recording as a fact and will refrain from commenting on a closed-door meeting just as it has been the case until now," Sargsyan's office added.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev on November 9 signed a statement to end the war in Karabakh after almost 45 days. Under the deal, the Armenian side is returning all the seven regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, having lost a part of Karabakh itself in hostilities.