Wednesday, March 20 2019 14:22

ArmInfo. The entrance of Russia -Russian peacekeepers - in Artsakh is needed neither by Iran or the West, nor by Armenia with Azerbaijan, or by Artsakh itself. Director  of the Armenian Center for Strategic and National Studies Manvel  Sargsyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo, commenting on the  recent statement of the hero of Artsakh Samvel Babayan. 

On March 15, ex-commander of the Artsakh Defense Army, Samvel  Babayan, proposed to abandon the Madrid principles, voicing the idea  of granting a territorial mandate of Russia as a mechanism for  resolving the Karabakh conflict.

"Opinions about the intention of Moscow to deploy troops in Artsakh  sound periodically. However, I can say that in the context of the  uniqueness of the status quo, the absence of international  peacekeepers around Artsakh, this is almost impossible. And none of  the countries that have an interest in the region will allow the  appearance of foreign troops here, of course, each because of their  own reasons. This explains the periodic statements of the co-chairs  that none of the OSCE Minsk Group countries can participate in the  deployment of peacekeepers in Artsakh, "he stressed

Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, represented by the co-chairs from  Russia, the United States and France, has been involved in resolving  the Karabakh conflict. At present, the settlement process is  proceeding on the basis of the Madrid Principles put forward by the  OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in 2007 and the Madrid Principles updated  in 2009, among other things, providing for the deployment of a  peacekeeping force in the conflict zone.

According to Sargsyan, who secured the tripartite signing of the  Armistice Agreement in 1994, Russia received a mandate from the CSCE  to organize negotiations and deploy peacekeepers. And all parties  approved the original version of the relevant agreement, although now  no one wants to admit it. However, later, after the transformation of  the CSCE into the OSCE, this topic was closed at the suggestion of  the other mediating countries, and the agreements remained hanging in  the air. "Four months later, tripartite negotiations began on  reaching the" Big Political Treaty "between Armenia, Artsakh and  Azerbaijan. I headed the Artsakh delegation at these negotiations.  After four months, the negotiations were interrupted due to the  insurmountable contradictions that arose between Moscow and the CSCE.  Armenia then supported the idea of a large treaty, but defeated  Azerbaijan did not. Baku unsuccessfully addressed NATO with a request  to intervene in the situation. For the Artsakh delegation, however,  the deployment of peacekeepers was epriemlemo always, as a result of  any agreement, " Sargsyan concluded.