Tuesday, December 1 2020 13:16

ArmInfo.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev revealed the details of the talks on the  Lachin corridor.

Thus, according to AzerTAc, Aliyev, in his address to the nation,  informed today that the initial version of Baku's Statement proposed  that the width of the Lachin corridor be 30 kilometers.

"I was categorically against this and said that these claims of the  Armenian side are absolutely unfounded.  There is no need for such a  wide corridor to ensure security measures within the corridor.  Therefore, I considered this an absolutely unacceptable proposal and  expressed my opinion. Then, in the second option, it was envisaged  that the width of the Lachin corridor will be 10 kilometers. I did  not agree to this either, and as a result an agreement was reached on  a corridor 5 kilometers wide. The corridor 5 kilometers wide covers a  sufficient distance both for us and for the Armenians living in  Nagorno-Karabakh, and for ensuring security ...

I must also say that in the negotiations held for a long time - about  30 years, the issue of returning the Lachin region to Azerbaijan,  especially the issue related to the Lachin corridor, has always been  discussed as a very important and separate topic. The Armenian side  generally believed that the entire Lachin region should be given to  them as a corridor. Unfortunately, some Western circles supported  this position. And this made the position of Armenia even more  irreconcilable, and we can say that the enemy completely loosened up.  As a result, a very serious policy of settlement was carried out in  the Lachin region.  Thousands of people lived there. According to  some reports, perhaps about 10 thousand people lived there.  That is,  the leadership of Armenia did not even think to return the Lachin  region to Azerbaijan. When during the negotiations we touched upon  the topics related to the Lachin corridor, both Armenia and its  patrons always noted that, no, the Lachin region is a separate topic.  Although we were not told directly, there was always such an opinion  that the Lachin region should remain in some form of Armenia, "Aliyev  said.

It should be noted that according to the notorious statement signed  on the night of November 9-10 by the presidents of the Russian  Federation and Azerbaijan, as well as the Prime Minister of Armenia,  hostilities in the zone of the Karabakh conflict completely stopped.  According to clause 6 of this agreement, the Republic of Armenia will  transfer the Lachin region to Azerbaijan by December 1, 2020. The  Lachin corridor (5 km wide), which will ensure the connection of  Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and at the same time will not affect  the city of Shusha, remains under the control of the peacekeeping  contingent of the Russian Federation.

It is also worth noting that the Mayor of Berdzor (Lachin) Narek  Aleksanyan, speaking about the situation, said that many residents  still remain in the city. "Yesterday, Russian peacekeepers reported  that there should be no flags of either party in the city. Therefore,  the flag of the Republic of Artsakh was lowered.  However, the  Russian peacekeepers did not specify whether the Azerbaijani armed  forces would enter Berdzor or not. For security reasons, it is  possible that women and children have left. from Berdzor, but many  remained. As for the rumors circulated since yesterday that only 200  people should remain in the city as maintenance personnel of the  peacekeepers, I have no information about this. In any case, at the  moment there are more than 200 residents in the city . Personally, I  am also in Berdzor. So far, no problems have arisen. Currently,  Russian peacekeepers are deployed in Berdzor, the remaining residents  are waiting for further developments, "he said.