Grigory Karasin responds to accusations from Azerbaijan against  Moscow

ArmInfo. Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, former Deputy  Foreign Minister of Russia Grigory Karasin reacted to the accusations coming from Azerbaijan against Moscow.

"I cannot but react to the unfriendly statements of member of the   Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan, Gudrat Hasanguliyev. In response to the   statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry dated July 15 this year,  he claims that "Russia does not want peace in the South Caucasus and  is interested in continuing the bloody conflict between the  Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples". The parliamentarian even allowed  himself to call our country "unreliable and bloodthirsty" and  demanded the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.

I hope that such anti-Russian attacks do not reflect the official  position of Baku. It would be important to evaluate them in the  Azerbaijani parliament as well," Karasin stressed.  In this vein, he  reminded the Azerbaijani MP that at all stages of the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, largely thanks to the efforts of the  Russian Federation, it was possible to stop hostilities, bring the  parties to the negotiating table and reach compromises.

"In the autumn of 2020, with the personal mediation of President V.V.  Putin, the bloodshed in the region was stopped. With the  participation of Moscow, tripartite agreements at the highest level  have been developed, which form the basis of the Armenian-Azerbaijani  normalization.

Russian peacekeepers deployed by the decision of the leaders of  Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia have established peace in Karabakh,  helping to solve priority humanitarian and socio-economic problems. I  will give just one fact: since November 2020, the contingent has  demined over 2.5 thousand hectares of territory, including almost 700  km of roads. Our peacekeepers gave the Armenians of Karabakh and  Azerbaijanis a chance to discuss the peace agenda. We regard the  demands for the withdrawal of the Russian contingent as absolutely  irresponsible," he stressed.

At the same time, Karasin, in general, assessing Hasanguliyev's  statement, stressed that it is completely at odds with the spirit and  content of the Declaration on allied cooperation between the Russian  Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan dated February 22, 2022 and  does not correspond to the high level of relations between Baku and  Moscow, including along parliamentary lines.

" We, are ready to continue the constructive dialogue in the Federal  Council, with our Azerbaijani partners who, as we know, are the  absolute majority," Karasin concluded.

Earlier, as ArmInfo already reported, on July 15, the Russian Foreign  Ministry issued a statement in which it accused Yerevan of deviating  from the essence of trilateral agreements and called on Baku to  unblock the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the outside  world. At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced its  readiness to organize a trilateral meeting of foreign ministers in  Moscow in the near future to discuss ways to implement agreements at  the highest level, including the topic of agreeing on a peace treaty,  followed by the Russian-Azerbaijani-Armenian summit in Moscow to sign  the said document. 

We add that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of  Azerbaijan, reacting to Moscow's statement, assured that it "causes  bewilderment and disappointment and does not comply with the  Declaration on Allied Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia and  the speeches of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which support the  territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, including  Karabakh".

Baku considered "unacceptable the Russian Foreign Ministry's  interpretation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of  Azerbaijan in the context of the fact that Karabakh was recognized as  an integral part of Azerbaijan by the Prime Minister of Armenia."

The statement notes that the Azerbaijani side is taking practical  steps to promote a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan and has  always demonstrated adherence to the tripartite statements signed  between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia. With the same cynicism, Baku  accused the RPC of failing to fulfill the agreements of the  tripartite statements, which are allegedly violated by Yerevan, and  considered unfounded "attempts to politicize the issue of creating a  checkpoint on the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia and  allegations of a tense humanitarian situation in the region."