The entire responsibility for the April hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh falls upon the Azerbaijani leadership, a Russian politician said today, highlighting the repeated calls for reaching an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Armenian Azerbaijani conflict.
Azerbaijan responsible for Karabakh blitzkrieg – Russian politician
STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 22, ARTSAKHPRESS: “We are aware that the tragic events, which happened in April, were due to the ceasefire breaches by Azerbaijan. The ceasefire regime was violated in the past too, but never at such paces,” Konstantin Zatulin, the director of the CIS Institute, told Tert.am, calling for efforts to ease the anti-Russian sentiments dominating the Armenian society after the four-day war.
Zatlin said he is absolutely confident that the Armenian-Russian strategic alliance remains deep and comprehensive after the past months' development. “This year alone, the joint anti-air defense agreement was signed between Armenia and the Russian Federation; Russia for the first time ever handed over [the short-range ballistic missile] Iskander to another state, i.e. – Armenia,” he noted.
Speaking of conflict settlement scenarios, Zatulin ruled out the possibility of declaring Nagorno-Karabakh part of Azerbaijan. “Soviet Azerbaijan no longer exists as a distinct [geographic] unit. As for the regions surrounding Nagorno-Karbakh, they must be returned to Azerbaijan,” he added.
