Azerbaijani FM: Russia proposed Karabakh peacekeepers as early as October 10, 2020

During the Second Karabakh War, Russia proposed deploying peacekeepers in Karabakh as early as October 10, 2020, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov revealed in an interview with İTV.

Bayramov recalled that on October 8, 2020, the Russian side insisted on holding negotiations with Armenia:

“On October 9, an agreement was reached to hold the meeting. When the negotiations began, an interesting moment occurred: the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presented a document to the parties. It consisted of only a few points. On the night of October 10, it was proposed to cease all military actions, deploy Russian peacekeepers and the Azerbaijani army on the eastern part of the line of contact, and Russian peacekeepers along with the Armenian army on the western part.”

According to Bayramov, the document did not address the liberation of territories or other key issues:

“This would have meant a complete freezing of the situation, after which nothing could have happened. Based on our position, we stated that we were ready to negotiate with Armenia, but let them indicate when they would withdraw their troops from the occupied territories. The Armenian side also objected to the document.”

The minister recalled that the negotiations lasted several hours, but the positions of the parties did not change. At a certain point, Lavrov made a manoeuvre and said that there had been a conversation between the leaders the day before, he was aware of it, but in his view, the positions of the parties differed:

“In response, we requested a break to discuss the matter within our delegation. We were offered a meeting room, but we decided to go to our embassy, while the Armenian delegation remained at the negotiation site. At the embassy, we maintained communication through certain channels, received instructions from the president, and prepared further steps. When we returned to the negotiations, Lavrov was leaving the room as he was receiving a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu. We stated that we would not back down from our position.”

Bayramov noted that it was extremely important for the Armenian side to achieve a result on that very day.

“We, on the other hand, said that we could continue negotiations the next day. While we were there, we received news of the liberation of Hadrut from occupation. This information was conveyed to us. Fifteen minutes later, we noticed panic among members of the Armenian delegation. This was a remarkable moment. We informed them that Hadrut had been liberated, because when the Armenian side proposed the 5+2 format (liberation of five of the seven occupied districts, excluding Kalbajar and Lachin), we stated that this option was already irrelevant, as Jabrayil and Hadrut had been liberated,” the minister emphasised.