Serzh Sargsyan Refuses to Surrender Regions: Lukashenko

Belarus has called on the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the issue together by making concessions. This was stated by the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko during a press conference held today.

He recounted the previously raised proposals regarding the involvement of Russia and Belarus in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue when Armenia's President was Serzh Sargsyan. Lukashenko said,

“We adopted a consolidated position with Putin (this was in Yerevan, during the CSTO meeting), saying, ‘Serzh, give up those 5 regions. What is the point of holding onto them when they are empty?’ He said, ‘If I return them, they will block the road, occupy Nagorno-Karabakh, and so on.’ And we—together with Putin—promised clearly that we would send troops and wouldn’t allow that (this was said in the presence of Azerbaijanis). He said, ‘No, we won’t go for that, we don’t want that,’” the President of Belarus added, expressing his surprise at the response.