Wednesday, September 1 2021 17:53

ArmInfo. The question of the status of the unrecognized republic of Artsakh remains open, and it must be resolved through negotiations, the guarantee of which is  our Russian military presence. This opinion was expressed at the  meeting of the City Council of the Sochi branch of the "Union of  Armenians of Russia" by lawmaker and candidate for the State Duma of  the Russian Federation in the Sochi constituency Konstantin Zatulin.

"You don't have to be Armenian to respect the Armenian people. My  father Fyodor Ivanovich Zatulin, a colonel and an honorary security  officer, commanded a border detachment in Nagorno-Karabakh in the  thirties of the last century and earned his first Order of the Battle  Red Banner for the elimination of the plague in Hadrut. Later, during  the Great Patriotic War, he was one of those who prepared a rebuff,  expecting an attack on the border with Turkey in the event of the  fall of Stalingrad. My attitude to the Armenians and Armenia is based  on the conviction that the support of your people , is natural for  anyone who realizes their roots as a Russian person, "he said.

The Russian legislator stated that for at least two hundred years  Russia had played a special role in the life of Armenians, was the  source of their joys and sorrows. He recalled that one and a half  million Armenians in the First World War were subjected to genocide  in Turkey - simply because they were suspected of waiting for Russia.  In this vein, he added that in the first convocation of the State  Duma in 1995, being the chairman of the newly created committee on  CIS affairs and relations with compatriots, I achieved recognition by  Russia of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

"I want to express my conviction that the current President of  Russia, Vladimir Putin, is deeply aware of the tragic past of the  Armenian people, the very fact of the genocide. Arriving in Armenia  and taking part in the mourning ceremonies in connection with the  centenary of the tragedy, Vladimir Putin, contrary to the advice of  those who were cautious, called the genocide by its own name in a  speech at the Memorial on Tsitsernakaberd Hill, "the lawmaker  stressed.

At the same time, Zatulin drew attention to the fact that from the  moment he became a lawmaker of the first State Duma, he has  consistently advocated strengthening relations with Armenia.

"In 1994, Robert Kocharian brought me to Karabakh - in the wake of  the military actions that had just gone off. I realized that in any  other way, except by recognizing the self-determination of the  Armenian people in Nagorno-Karabakh, it is impossible to achieve a  just settlement of this conflict:  I deliberately dwelled on all this  in order to once again state my position, set out in the article "One  lie as a loss for us: lessons of Karabakh for Russia", published on  December 22, 2020, hot on the heels of what happened, in  "Komsomolskaya Pravda": last year's war could not be allowed in  principle. If your official military ally, Armenia, is defeated, then  there is no need to ask for whom the bell is ringing. The Pashinyans  come and go, but the Armenian people remain. At the final stage,  Putin managed to break through the peacekeeping operation, and today  Karabakh (its Armenian part) lives and breathes with the fact that  our peacekeepers will not leave there, "the Russian deputy believes.   At the same time, he is convinced that the behavior of Azerbaijan and  Turkey, which have become one in relation to Armenia and Russia, does  not allow us to believe in peace, and not an armistice following the  results of this war.

<The question of the status of the unrecognized republic of Artsakh  remains open, and it must be resolved through negotiations, the  guarantee of which is our Russian military presence:  Alas, it is a  fact that in Armenia, which has ceased to be a guarantor for  Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, anti-Russian sentiments are growing  today, claims are being made against Russia. All those structures,  such as Radio Liberty, which supported the velvet revolution in 2018  and the elections in 2021, are actively participating in this  campaign. The prime minister can meet with our president, endlessly  appeal to Russia and even go on vacation in Sochi, but people from  his entourage do not hesitate to sing one song - "Russia left us,  Russia did not help us, we must look for happiness on the side." If  it continues at such a pace, then in five years there will be little  left of Russian influence in Armenia, "Zatulin noted.  At the same  time, he is convinced that this is no longer a question of interstate  relations between Russia and Armenia - it is a wedge between Russians  and Armenians all over the world.  <It is my role and yours to  prevent this from happening. Someone, of course, is trying to present  my position as pro-Armenian. They endlessly lie about the millions  and billions that I supposedly get. They make jokes about the fact  that now the "Karabakh separatists" are gathering at my dacha in  Sochi.  I do not have a summer residence or a home, unfortunately, in  my native Sochi. With all due respect, I do not take a "pro-Armenian"  position, I am not an Armenian. I am Russian, a descendant of the  Cossacks from the Don, who always and in everything occupies a  pro-Russian position. I defended Russians in Crimea, Sevastopol and  Transnistria, Abkhazians in Abkhazia, Ossetians in Ossetia, Serbs in  Kosovo. I cannot imagine a Russian patriot who applauds Turkey, which  does not recognize Crimea as Russian, St.  Sophia Christian, and  Dadivank, Amaras and Genzasar - not Armenian, but mythical "Albanian"  monasteries:>, the legislator summed up.