(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The results of the Sochi summit fully reflect the position of Azerbaijan, the editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko told Trend .
'The summit results are a political victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, since Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, with EU support, planned to hold a summit in December [in Brussels] and wanted to turn this December summit into a political accusatory process against Azerbaijan by excluding Russia's role of key mediator in resolving the situation in the South Caucasus,' Korotchenko said.
'Therefore, Pashinyan didn't come [to Sochi] on November 9, although he was invited to Russia and organized an alternative event in Brussels with EU support. Therefore, Putin used all measures of diplomatic and political pressure to make Pashinyan arrive in Sochi before visit to Brussels,' he noted. 'Here, of course, the political tandem of President Vladimir Putin-President Ilham Aliyev proved to be stronger and more effective than the tandem of Pashinyan and the EU. Therefore, the results of the summit fully reflect the position of Azerbaijan.'
According to the expert, first of all, Putin once again confirmed the need to launch the Zangazur transport corridor [envisioned in the trilateral statement between the presidents of Russian, Azerbaijan, and Armenia's prime minister] by using namely the word 'transport corridor'.
'This means the extraterritorial status of the corridor. There will be no Armenian control bodies. Thus, a direct communication road will open up for Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, as an integral part of the country, and from there to Turkey. This is the first important factor in success, meeting the interests of Russia and, of course, the interests of Azerbaijan. In this case, Armenia's opinion wasn't taken into account,' he also said.
'Another rather important point of the summit's results is the issue related to the beginning of the border demarcation process. Putin clearly said that a bilateral commission would be set up. Thus, he refused to take into account the wishes of Armenia to set up a trilateral commission, where Russia could lobby for the interests of Yerevan. He proposed [Armenia] to negotiate directly with Baku. Russia will provide the necessary consulting assistance, but this should be a bilateral format. Thus, Putin once again outlined his position,' he added.
Besides, according to Korotchenko, overall, the results of the summit reflect the policy of rapprochement and common approaches to resolving the situation in the region, which both Russia and Azerbaijan have.
'However, Armenia is being made to do what Pashinyan agreed to by signing the trilateral statement in November last year. As for the fact that the statement signed following the meeting in Sochi doesn't mention the issue of prisoners of war and hostages, there are no prisoners. Instead, there are terrorists who, after the process of exchange of prisoners and after the end of the 2020 second Karabakh war, were detained with on the territory of Azerbaijan,' the expert said.
'Moreover, they arrived in Azerbaijan from Armenia. The prisoner exchange process is complete. Therefore, these are terrorists, and accordingly, the necessary response measures are applied to them on the part of the Azerbaijani justice. Pashinyan's attempts to raise this issue were promptly suppressed by Putin and this issue wasn't even considered publicly when discussing issues that arose at the summit, but it's obvious that Pashinyan will mention these topics in Brussels, where he will try to turn the Brussels summit into a book of complaints against Azerbaijan,' concluded Korotchenko.
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