Pashinyan Has Left No Legal Grounds for the Presence of Peacekeepers in Artsakh, Says Yevgeny Satanovsky

As long as there is time, people must be rescued there; I have talked about this with the leadership of Artsakh. This was stated by Yevgeny Satanovsky, President of the Russian Institute for the Middle East, in an interview with a NEWS.am correspondent.

“The deadline expires in 2025. After that, there are no grounds for the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Azerbaijani territory. Since Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has recognized Artsakh as Azerbaijani territory, the conflict is resolved, which means that Aliyev is in control there,” he said.

According to Satanovsky, Aliyev has no desire to leave any peacekeepers there. “He has already said that anyone who accepts Azerbaijani citizenship and passports will live under Azerbaijani law, while the rest can leave. Today, there is a pressing issue regarding the swift evacuation of the peaceful population from Artsakh, primarily women and children. This is a problem, in my view, based on the Jewish experience of the Holocaust,” Satanovsky emphasized.

He linked the announcement about the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Artsakh to Erdogan's statements, noting that the Shushi Agreement establishes a joint military-political space of Azerbaijan and Turkey, with Erdogan being the most significant figure in this tandem. “If Aliyev wants, he will say so, but Erdogan has already outlined his position. Probably, Aliyev and Putin will talk and make another decision or agree that the situation is such that there are no grounds for the presence of peacekeepers in Artsakh. After Pashinyan's decision to recognize Artsakh as Azerbaijani territory, those grounds no longer exist. The Prime Minister of Armenia has left no legal basis for the presence of peacekeepers there. This could be a topic for discussion between Putin and Aliyev, and that’s it. Pashinyan had his reasons for surrendering Artsakh; who does not understand this? Putin does not decide who the Prime Minister of Armenia is; the people decide,” the expert recalled.

According to him, Russia cannot do more for the Armenians of Artsakh than the Armenians of Armenia can or the Prime Minister of Armenia. “This is where the problem lies, not in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has squeezed out what it could: It was the Armenian Prime Minister who rejected the peace agreement proposed by Russia under much better conditions before or at the beginning of the war (before the capture of Shushi). Pashinyan refused, and then at the last moment Moscow really managed to secure the presence of Armenians in Artsakh. After the Armenian Genocide, how many Armenians remained to live in Turkey? It would be a nationalistic, pan-Turkist, pan-Islamic community, with a very harsh attitude towards national minorities in general, and first and foremost towards Armenians,” Satanovsky concluded.