Russia says never offered Armenia to cede land to Azerbaijan "for nothing"January 13, 2021 - 19:23 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Moscow has never reduced the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the return of seven districts surrounding Karabakh to Azerbaijan, ignoring the question of its status, Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Igor Popov has said. His comments came in response to an article penned by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in which he argued that the status of Karabakh had been left out of the agenda of negotiations. "The assertion that Russia offered to return the seven districts "for nothing", forget about the status and settle down is not true," the diplomat said Wednesday, January 13. In the article published on January 4, Pashinyan wrote: "In 2013, the now well-known Russian proposals appeared and were finalized in 2015, which provided for the return of 7 regions to Azerbaijan according to the 5 + 2 formula, the return of refugees and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers. The package of proposals has no mention of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, it bypasses this issue. The proposals were submitted to the Armenian side in January 2016. The Armenian side rejected them, and in April 2016 the Four-Day April War broke out. Formally, after 2016 the negotiation process continued on the basis of the Madrid principles or their configuration, but there were Russian proposals, they existed and their presence was seen everywhere, at least in the logic that by 2018 the transfer of 7 regions had been the main, if not the only negotiated topic. Top stories Six total incidents have burned 19 old-growth trees. Friday night 8 trees were torched along the beautiful main entrance. The EU does not intend to conduct military exercises with Armenia, Lead Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano says. Hikmet Hajiyev has said that there is no place for USAID operation in Azerbaijan any longer. A telephone conversation between Putin and Pashinyan before the CSTO summit is not planned, Peskov says. Partner news | Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. Ex-Karabakh leader moved to solitary confinement cell in Baku, his son says David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Freedom House concerned by mounting reports of police violence in Armenia Freedom House urged Armenian authorities to investigate this pattern of excessive force and inhumane treatment. CSTO recognizes Armenia’s sovereign right to withdraw Tasmagambetov has said that if Armenia decides to leave the organization, “it will be the sovereign right of Armenia.” |