Medvedev: endless talks over Karabakh preferable to war

August 5, 2011 - 13:30 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - In an interview with Russia Today TV channel, First Caucasian Channel of Georgia, Echo of Moscow radio station, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev referred to the lesson Armenia and Azerbaijan were taught after Russia-Georgia war.

“Forcing peace on Georgia, which Russia attempted in 2008 in South Ossetia, has become a “serious lesson” for Armenia and Azerbaijan as the countries remain conflicted over Nagorno Karabakh,” Medvedev said.

“When [the five-day war] took place, the two leaders, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, were in Sochi. They said to me, “the war is a tragedy, it will have serious repercussions on Caucasus.” My response was, “too bad, yet what happened proves endless negotiations over Karabakh, a possible referendum or discussions over a peace agreement much preferable to a war”,” the Russian leader stressed.

According to Medvedev, Russia and Georgia could attempt to seek compromises, though it would be a political process, with unclear perspectives. “They might have never agreed, yet something might come through, or some sort of a confederation formed. Yet, the Georgian President just went and broke off his country,” Medvedev said.

The 2008 South Ossetia War or Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict in August 2008 between Georgia on one side; and Russia along with South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other.

During the night of August 7 to 8, 2008, Georgia launched a large-scale military offensive against South Ossetia, in an attempt to reconquer the territory. Georgia claimed that it was responding to attacks on its peacekeepers and villages in South Ossetia, and that Russia was moving non-peacekeeping units into the country. The Georgian attack caused casualties among Russian peacekeepers, who resisted the assault along with Ossetian militia. Russian and Ossetian troops battled Georgian forces throughout South Ossetia for four days, with the heaviest fighting taking place in Tskhinvali. After five days of heavy fighting in South Ossetia, the Georgian forces retreated, enabling the Russians to enter uncontested Georgia and occupy the cities of Poti, Gori, Senaki, and Zugdidi.

Through mediation by the French presidency of the European Union, the parties reached a preliminary ceasefire agreement on August 12, signed by Georgia on 15 August in Tbilisi and by Russia on August 16 in Moscow.