There was no person in Karabakh with whom Baku wanted to talk - the former separatist leader

Baku/28.10.23/Turan: Former “president” of Karabakh Samvel Shahramanyan on Friday, in an interview with Public TV of Armenia, revealed some details of the one-day war on September 19.

“I established contact with the responsible person of Azerbaijan working with us to find out if there is a candidate in Artsakh with whom they are willing to negotiate. There were discussions in Artsakh that Samvel Babayan or Vitaly Balasanyan would be acceptable candidates, but I received a negative response from the Azerbaijani side,” Shahramanyan said.

Answering a question about the arrest of former separatist leaders, Shahramanyan said that Azerbaijan had taken a “selective approach” towards them. According to him, these people were arrested and transported to Baku for political purposes.

“Me, the Minister of Defense and two of my security officials arrived in Armenia by helicopter,” he added.

Referring to the start of the fighting on September 19, he said: “On the morning of September 19, the Azerbaijanis approached the captain of the Russian stronghold near Shusha and warned him to evacuate their personnel because the artillery would soon be working. We told the peacekeepers about this, they already knew that. After the start of hostilities, I realized that we were alone. The Russian side was in observer status.”

When asked why the Karabakh people left heavy equipment, Shahramanyan said: “We could not leave Artsakh with heavy equipment. It makes no sense to talk about this, since the Azerbaijani side established a checkpoint. We handed over to the Russian side weapons that, according to the agreement, must be destroyed.”

Regarding the ceasefire document signed with Azerbaijan, Shahramanian said that  the Armenian authorities were informed of its contents. “The point about the “withdrawal of units of the Armenian Armed Forces from Artsakh” was forced into the text. This was Baku’s firm demand, Stepanakert agreed to this in order to save the lives of civilians,”- Shahramanyan noted. 

When asked whether it was possible to leave Karabakh without war and without losses, Shahramanyan made it clear that there was no such possibility. The reason is that it was impossible to convince the population that it was necessary to leave Karabakh without resistance. “However, after the beginning of hostilities, and taking into account all  circumstances, we came to the conclusion that it was right to stop and save lives,” said Shahramanyan. -02B-