Neither Serzh Sargsyan nor Nikol Pashinyan Agreed: Lukashenko Talks About His Conversation with Aliyev

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, stated that he has long offered solutions for the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Baku and Yerevan; however, Armenia did not agree, and the Azerbaijani president was cornered, leaving him with no choice but to use force.

“In the past, when, in my opinion, we were once again chairing the CSTO, I addressed this issue. I went to Ilham (President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev) and had a friendly conversation with him,” Lukashenko said during a meeting in Minsk with CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas.

His remarks were quoted on Tuesday by the press service of the Belarusian president. “And I asked him this question jokingly: ‘Ilham Heydarovich, well, if you agree, you should help Armenia.’” The discussion revolved around five and a half or six districts—the Azerbaijani districts, which as they declared, were captured by the Armenians. The Armenians acknowledged, ‘this is not our land; this is Azerbaijani,’ besides Nagorno-Karabakh. And when I suggested returning those territories, there would be no war. Ilham would not have the motivation to start this war; they would solve it calmly. However, neither Serzh Sargsyan nor later Nikol Pashinyan agreed. I raised this issue twice,” Lukashenko said, discussing his proposals for peaceful resolution.