The Ceasefire Agreement Should Have Been Signed Between Azerbaijan and Artsakh, Aliyev Asked Me to Contact Yerevan - Kazimirov

According to the "168 Hours" newspaper, a ceasefire agreement was supposed to be signed between Azerbaijan and Artsakh initially without Armenia's participation. Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Mamedov had already signed the text I proposed under the orders of President Heydar Aliyev. Concurrently, I was passing this text to Yerevan and Stepanakert. Yerevan was aware of this text.

Mamedov signed this document, after which, once the text was agreed upon with Stepanakert and Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev approached me, insisting that I contact Yerevan, in case they might join as well,” said Vladimir Kazimirov, the former Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, during an interview with "168 Hours,” reminiscing about the signing process of the ceasefire agreement.

He noted that at that time, he had tried to convince Heydar Aliyev to abandon this step, assuring him that it was impossible to get Yerevan to put its signature on it.

“But Heydar Aliyev insisted, and out of respect, understanding that he was experienced and older, I eventually called Yerevan. After an hour and a half, a call came from Yerevan, and Davit Shahnazaryan, who played an active role in the settlement process at that stage, informed that Armenia was also ready to sign this document.

At that time, we sent to Yerevan the text that had already been signed by Mamedov, while at that moment, Serzh Sargsyan was Armenia's Defense Minister, who, upon receiving that text I sent to him via fax, made two corrections to it.

I won’t speak about the nature of those corrections; they were acceptable, but at another time, those corrections could have prolonged the discussions about signing the agreement by a week, while in this case, the Azerbaijani side instantly agreed to Serzh Sargsyan's two amendments.

When Mamedov signed again, the text also arrived from Yerevan with Serzh Sargsyan's signature, and then that revised text was also signed by Samvel Babayan, who was the commander of the Artsakh Defense Army,” Kazimirov explained.

It is noteworthy that May 5 marked the 25th anniversary of the ceasefire agreement signed between Artsakh, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, known as the Bishkek Protocol.

For more details, see today’s issue of the newspaper.