David Babayan Comments on the Results of the Sochi Trilateral Meeting

Official Stepanakert values the trilateral meeting of the leaders of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan held in Sochi, but notes that one should not expect final resolution and peace from it.

In an interview with Armenpress, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh, David Babayan, commented on the outcomes of the trilateral meeting held in Sochi.

"First and foremost, it should be understood that a comprehensive resolution cannot be achieved in one meeting. This is not the case, as the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict is among the most complex in the world, perhaps akin to the Israeli-Arab one. The most important thing is that it has been directly or indirectly fixed that the issue is not closed. It has been established that there are questions that are not agreed upon and that need to be worked on. Reference has been made to several agreements, particularly the declaration of November 9, 2020. This is very important and is the most tangible achievement," said the foreign minister, also considering the emphasis on the role of the Russian peacekeeping mission within their responsibility in the area as a positive outcome of the meeting, which, according to David Babayan, once again demonstrates the existence of a relevant subject and unity.

"Therefore, from this perspective, the results of the meeting should be viewed. Of course, any document or meeting could collapse, but they are very important. We must understand that this is geopolitics. We have a significant meeting, an event that fixed the ongoing process, that nothing is resolved, and we must continue working in this direction. In addition, it has been reiterated that Russia is ready to play an active role in the region; this is the essence of the declaration adopted as a result of the meeting," stated the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh.

According to Babayan, it is also important to consider the Sochi meeting and the adopted declaration from the perspective of recent developments where approaches and proposals were circulating about "integrating" Artsakh into Azerbaijan. In contrast to these, the head of Artsakh's political department highlighted that it was mentioned in Sochi that the issue is complex, not yet resolved, and that work needs to be done.

"We need to understand that our desires, especially in the emotional realm, do not always find their place. For this reason, we must work hard, first and foremost ourselves. We must be persistent, prioritize our hopes on our will, never be indifferent, and never think that everything is lost. If we show will, as we did during the rally in Stepanakert, and show that any status within Azerbaijan is unacceptable to us, then all of this will finally be taken into account," David Babayan expressed his belief.

As previously reported, a trilateral meeting took place in Sochi between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of the Republic of Armenia and President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan. Following the meeting, a trilateral declaration was adopted.