Armenians have left Lachin. And what about Khankendi?

Baku/12.08.22/Turan: In accordance with paragraph 6 of the joint statement of November 10, the Azerbaijani side completed the construction of an alternative road to the Lachin corridor and demanded the evacuation of the areas through which the corridor passes - the city of Lachin, the evacuation of persons illegally residing by August 25 in the villages of Zabukh and Sus. The Syrian and Lebanese Armenians who settled in these lands as a result of 30 years of occupation are already leaving these territories.

But when will Khankendi be released?

Political commentator Rauf Mirkadirov answers these and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.

According to him, Baku and Yerevan are striving to speed up the start of peace talks. “They are driven by a lot of interests. However, there are serious obstacles along the way. There is concern,  whether there will be peace talks or not,  under whose patronage they will be conducted, who will patronize the agreements, who, as a result of these agreements, will strengthen their positions in the region. This is a very serious factor,” Mirkadyrov said.

According to the expert, neither Baku nor Yerevan has a desire to make an unequivocal choice in favor of Moscow. “This is because they think about their future.  The future is vague and therefore, they are not sure of the victory of Russia. This is manifested in the tactics of the leaders of the two countries. If the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, prior to February 24, preferring negotiations with Armenia with the participation of Russia, tried to exclude the West from this process, then after this date, he did not interfere with Western peace initiatives. In a word, he decided to balance between two centers of power.

A metamorphosis also took place in the tactics of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who from the beginning of the Ukrainian campaign of Russia, after each round of negotiations with Azerbaijan, began to visit Putin, as if reporting to him on the work done. This is due to the strong economic, military-political dependence of Armenia on Russia,” the expert noted.

According to Mirkadyrov, the unexpectedly loyal attitude of Russia towards the position of Azerbaijan is interesting, which requires the immediate transfer of Lachin, the villages of Zabukh and Sus and the old Lachin road under its control.

“In principle, Russia could support Armenia, which, according to the terms of the application, has another year and 4 months before the surrender of these settlements. But, for some reason, Russia limited itself to only stating that on August 3, Azerbaijan “violated the ceasefire,” Mirkadyrov said.

He also noted that in Armenia they began to talk about the need for Armenians in Karabakh to accept citizenship of Azerbaijan.

“This was stated by Larisa Alaverdyan (Executive Director of the organization Against Judicial Arbitrariness, in an interview with PastinfoTV - ed. note). A deputy from the ruling Civil Contract party (former Minister of Health of Armenia Arsen Torosyan - ed. note) wrote on his Facebook page that during the agony of the collapsing empire, they made the mistake of choosing death and war again, like 100 years ago.

The process is underway, and the Armenians also want a solution to the conflict, there is such a desire,” Mirkadyrov said, but he again stressed that there are many obstacles on this path.

“The Russians mainly talk about the need to discuss issues of demarcation-delimitation. It is important for them. “We are ready to help. Let's demarcate-delimitate,” they say, and immediately talk about the need to ensure border security. And who will ensure the security of the borders? Of course, they are Russians...,” the expert says.