ArmInfo.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev revealed the details of the talks on the Lachin corridor.
Thus, according to AzerTAc, Aliyev, in his address to the nation, informed today that the initial version of Baku's Statement proposed that the width of the Lachin corridor be 30 kilometers.
"I was categorically against this and said that these claims of the Armenian side are absolutely unfounded. There is no need for such a wide corridor to ensure security measures within the corridor. Therefore, I considered this an absolutely unacceptable proposal and expressed my opinion. Then, in the second option, it was envisaged that the width of the Lachin corridor will be 10 kilometers. I did not agree to this either, and as a result an agreement was reached on a corridor 5 kilometers wide. The corridor 5 kilometers wide covers a sufficient distance both for us and for the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, and for ensuring security ...
I must also say that in the negotiations held for a long time - about 30 years, the issue of returning the Lachin region to Azerbaijan, especially the issue related to the Lachin corridor, has always been discussed as a very important and separate topic. The Armenian side generally believed that the entire Lachin region should be given to them as a corridor. Unfortunately, some Western circles supported this position. And this made the position of Armenia even more irreconcilable, and we can say that the enemy completely loosened up. As a result, a very serious policy of settlement was carried out in the Lachin region. Thousands of people lived there. According to some reports, perhaps about 10 thousand people lived there. That is, the leadership of Armenia did not even think to return the Lachin region to Azerbaijan. When during the negotiations we touched upon the topics related to the Lachin corridor, both Armenia and its patrons always noted that, no, the Lachin region is a separate topic. Although we were not told directly, there was always such an opinion that the Lachin region should remain in some form of Armenia, "Aliyev said.
It should be noted that according to the notorious statement signed on the night of November 9-10 by the presidents of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan, as well as the Prime Minister of Armenia, hostilities in the zone of the Karabakh conflict completely stopped. According to clause 6 of this agreement, the Republic of Armenia will transfer the Lachin region to Azerbaijan by December 1, 2020. The Lachin corridor (5 km wide), which will ensure the connection of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and at the same time will not affect the city of Shusha, remains under the control of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation.
It is also worth noting that the Mayor of Berdzor (Lachin) Narek Aleksanyan, speaking about the situation, said that many residents still remain in the city. "Yesterday, Russian peacekeepers reported that there should be no flags of either party in the city. Therefore, the flag of the Republic of Artsakh was lowered. However, the Russian peacekeepers did not specify whether the Azerbaijani armed forces would enter Berdzor or not. For security reasons, it is possible that women and children have left. from Berdzor, but many remained. As for the rumors circulated since yesterday that only 200 people should remain in the city as maintenance personnel of the peacekeepers, I have no information about this. In any case, at the moment there are more than 200 residents in the city . Personally, I am also in Berdzor. So far, no problems have arisen. Currently, Russian peacekeepers are deployed in Berdzor, the remaining residents are waiting for further developments, "he said.