17 November Putin interview about Karabakh

MINUTE 1:00 – To understand what is happening, we must go back in time, this all started in 1988 with ethnic clashes in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, at that time ethnic Armenians suffered, this spread to Nagorno Karabakh, and because the Soviet authorities at the time did not react as needed, […] people were not protected, and from that Armenians took up arms, and that is how this prolonged conflict started.

MINUTE 2:00 – In 1991 Nagorno Karabakh declared its Independence, sovereignty, self-determination, in 1994 the Bishkek Memorandum was signed that ended military operations, what was the result: Karabakh declared its Independence and 7 regions around it came under Armenian control, essentially under Armenia’s control. This is what the past gave us and what was needed to resolve.

MINUTE 11:00 – On 19-20 October I held telephone conversations with Aliyev and Pashinyan, at that time Azerbaijan had returned control of a significant part of southern NK, I managed to convince Aliyev to that military actions could be halted, on the [Aliyev’s] condition that displaced persons would return, also to Shusha, but unexpectedly for me, our Armenian colleagues’ position of was such that it was not acceptable for them. Pashinyan said that he saw a threat to Armenia’s and Karabakh’s interests the interests, I myself don’t see how that would be a threat, […], he said “we can’t do that, we will [continue to] fight…”

 

MINUTE 18.20 – We [Russia] have good experience cooperating [with Turkey] in the Middle East, in Syria, we organise joint patrols, here [Nagorno Karabakh] we do not need such cooperation, but we agreed on creating a joint centre that will use UAVs, together we will control the situation, together we will receive and process information. [Turkish troops] will be deployed on Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, and [Azerbaijan] has the right to decide where they shall be deployed.