Zakharova makes it clear that Karabakh will not survive without peacekeepers

Baku/02.08.23/Turan: After the Armenian leadership recognized that Nagorno-Karabakh  is Azerbaijan, some claims against Russia about the lack of efforts look inappropriate, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova  stated at a briefing in Moscow on Wednesday.

"The arguments about the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh are absolutely incomprehensible, especially against the background of the current extremely difficult humanitarian situation. Is this Mr. Pashinyan's wish? It is well known that peacekeepers perform important functions. Is it really from the point of view of the Armenian leadership that this activity is unnecessary, undesirable, and they want it not to happen?" she said.

Zakharova also noted that "the Armenian leadership often takes an ambiguous position on a number of key issues, but I would like there to be no ambiguity on this point."

She stated that Russia remains interested in advancing the process of normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. "Moreover, the talk that against the background of the special operation of the Russian Federation, some areas of foreign policy have become less priority for Moscow has no factual basis. We need to face the truth. Probably, these are value judgments, personal opinions, perhaps emotion, but it's worth listening to the facts," Zakharova said.

She did not specify what exactly Pashinyan said. However, earlier at a press conference, Pashinyan said that the deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh has a specific goal – to prevent mass casualties among the civilian population, and if Russia decides to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh, this at least means that the threat of mass death of the population no longer exists.--- 0---