Tuesday, November 17 2020 23:19

ArmInfo."The most important thing that we managed to do was to stop the bloodshed. I  have already said that over four thousand people died, only according  to official figures. In fact, I think more.

Tens of thousands are injured, maimed. Listen, this is not a movie.  This is a tragedy that happens in life with specific people, with specific families.  Therefore, the cessation of bloodshed is the main result, "Russian  President Vladimir Putin said on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel,  answering media questions.

According to the head of the Russian state, in order to understand  what is happening, you still have to go back to history, literally in  a nutshell. "I have to remind you that all this began back in 1988,  when there were ethnic clashes in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait.  Then the civilian population, the Armenians, suffered, then these  events spread to Nagorno-Karabakh. And since the then leadership of  the Soviet Union did not respond appropriately to the current events:  I repeat once again: these are subtle things, here I do not want to  take someone's side, who is right there, who is to blame, now it is  impossible to say at all, but it was necessary to put things in  order, to protect the people, the civilian population. And then the  Armenians themselves took up arms, and this protracted, in fact, many  years of conflict began, which led to the fact that in 1991 Karabakh  declared its independence, sovereignty, independence, and in 1994 the  Bishkek agreements, the Bishkek memorandum, which ended hostilities  at that point in time. And what happened as a result - as a result,  Karabakh announced l about its independence, as I have already said,  and seven more adjacent regions came under the control of the  Armenians, in fact, under the control of Armenia. Here, in fact, this  is what we got from the past, and what had to be solved. In my  opinion, the fact that hostilities have stopped and, which is very  important, have agreed to unblock all transport communications,  restore economic ties, in my opinion, this is extremely important and  this creates a good basis for normalizing relations in the long term,  "he said. President of the Russian Federation.

He agreed with the remark that no one recognized the status of  Karabakh then. "It is true: neither then nor later did no one  recognize it. By the way, Armenia itself did not recognize it," the  Russian leader stated.  Vladimir Putin noted that the status problem  still exists. "We have agreed that we will maintain the status quo,  the current state of affairs. What will happen next is to be decided  in the future or by future leaders, future participants in this  process. But, in my opinion, if conditions are created for a normal  life , for the restoration of relations between Armenia and  Azerbaijan, between people at the household level, especially in the  conflict zone, this will create conditions for determining the status  of Karabakh. As for the recognition or non-recognition of Karabakh as  an independent, independent state, here it is possible in different  ways. but it was undoubtedly a significant factor, including in the  course of the bloody conflict that I hope that was just ended,  because the very fact of non-recognition of Karabakh, including by  Armenia, significantly left an imprint on the course of events and on  its perception. "Here we must speak frankly, in due time after the  criminal, without any doubt, actions of the former Georgian va, I  mean striking our peacekeepers in South Ossetia, Russia recognized  the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. We recognized the  expression of the will of the people living in Crimea as just, and  the desire of the people living there to reunite with Russia, we went  to meet the people, we did it openly. Someone may like it, someone  may not like it, but we did it in the interests of the people who  live there, and in the interests of the whole of Russia, and we are  not ashamed to speak about it directly. This was not done with regard  to Karabakh, and this, of course, significantly influenced all the  events taking place there, "the President of the Russian Federation  noted.