Azerbaijani MFA comments on views voiced by Russian President in his interview

"Azerbaijan highly appreciates the efforts that the Russian side is making to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the only country out of the three co-chairing states of the OSCE Minsk Group that directly borders our region and has long-standing historical ties with it. This explains Russia's direct interest in strengthening security, stability and peace in the South Caucasus," the Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan said in response to a question from the media in connection with an interview given by the President of the Russian Federation on November 17, 2020, e-huquq.az reports.

"In the interview, it was told in sufficient detail about the important role that the mediation of the head of the Russian state played in reaching the agreements of November 9 of this year. The personal role of the President of Russia, his signature under the trilateral statement of November 9 this year. represent his extremely important contribution to the peace process and a guarantee of the irreversibility of this process.

We fully share the assessment of the President of Russia that an important achievement of the trilateral statement is the cessation of bloodshed. The Azerbaijani side has always and completely, since the first minutes of the war, supported the calls of the international community for a ceasefire.

In his interview, the President of Russia also touched upon the history of the settlement process.

Of particular importance are the words of the President of Russia that from the point of view of international law, both Nagorno-Karabakh and all adjacent regions are an integral part of the territory of Azerbaijan. This position of Russia rests on a solid foundation of UN Security Council resolutions, decisions of the OSCE and other international organizations.

The statement made in an interview by the President of Russia about the occupied territories of our country were under the control of Armenia is extremely important. This testifies to the complete collapse of the attempts of the Armenian side to mislead the world community and bring to the fore the illegal regime that was created by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

In the same way, the attempts of the Armenian leadership to expand the scope of the conflict and involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization in it failed. In his interview, the President of Russia once again clearly and clearly stated that no one encroached on the territory of Armenia. Thus, the position of Azerbaijan was confirmed that all hostilities are taking place exclusively on the territory of our country, which was occupied by the armed forces of Armenia in the 1990s.

It should be especially emphasized that the President of Russia characterized the possible refusal of the Armenian side to fulfill the terms of the agreements of November 9 this year. as a "huge mistake" and even as "suicide." We fully share this assessment. As the President of Russia wisely noted, the trilateral statement reached with the active support of Russia creates a good basis for normalizing relations in the long term," said the Ministry.