Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to do everything possible to help end hostilities and resume political processes in the zone of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

In a message he wrote on Friday, October 23, Harutyunyan said Russia is perceived in the historical memory of the people of Artsakh as a fraternal country that has always extended a helping hand to the Armenian people.

"For more than a century (from early 19th to beginning of the 20th century), Karabakh was part of the Russian Empire. For Karabakh, this historical period was marked by a long period of peace, creation, repatriation of compatriots, and economic recovery. The cultural life particularly developed. Since the second half of the 19th century, the administrative and political center of Artsakh, the city of Shushi, has been one of the most important cultural and economic centers of the entire Transcaucasia," Harutyunyan said.

"In the same period, a whole galaxy of Karabakh Armenians played an important role in the military-political and social life of Russia, among them Valerian Madatov, Ivan Lazarev, Lazar Serebryakov, Mikhail Loris-Melikov, Vasili Bebutov."

Today too Artsakh and Russia enjoy close relations, Harutyunyan said: "A significant part of the representatives of the three million Armenian diaspora in Russia are natives of Artsakh, many of them forcibly deported as a result of the policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities in the late 1980s and early 1990s."

"We greatly appreciate the efforts of Russia and your personal contribution aimed at stopping large-scale military operations and Azerbaijan's aggression against Artsakh," the Karabakh leader said, particularly lauding Putin's remarks at a recent forum. The Russian President said, in particular, that "the fact is that violent crimes were committed against the Armenian people in Sumgait, and later in Nagorno-Karabakh".

Saying that Putin is a person and leader with immense personal authority in the world and the region, Harutyunyan asked him to do everything possible to help end hostilities and resume political processes in the zone of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan, with help from Turkey and Syrian and Libyan mercenaries deployed by Ankara, started a war against Karabakh (Artsakh) in the morning of September 27. The Armenian side has reported deaths and injuries both among the civilian population and the military. Foreign and local journalists too have been injured in Azeri shelling of towns and villages.