Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Monday


Russian military expert sees similarity between atrocities of Turks
and Azerbaijanis in April 1915 and 2016



YEREVAN, JUNE 12, ARMENPRESS. Russian military expert Vladimir Evseev,
deputy director of the CIS Countries Institute, doesn’t imagine
complete, effective talks on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
without the participation of Stepanakert.

The expert identified three issues which serve basis for the
conflict’s possible settlement.

“The return of Stepanakert to negotiation table, expansion of OSCE
mission, as well as installation of investigative mechanisms. These
are realistic”, he told Armenpress, adding that he doesn’t see any
prospect for resumption of serious talks since Azerbaijan has no
motivation.

According to Vladimir Evseev, by their last statement the OSCE Minsk
Group Co-Chairs accepted what had happened, however this is not
enough, since, according to him, real actions are needed except from
calls and statements.

“If I were on their place, I would urge Azerbaijan to fulfill its
obligations. I don’t know why they didn’t do it: unfortunately, this
is a double standards policy, in other words, there was a statement,
however, it was not followed by any action. I think in any case this
statement cannot be a restraining factor for Azerbaijan. The only
restraining factor are the Armed forces. Only through force it will be
possible to return Azerbaijan to negotiation table”, he said.

The military expert visited Artsakh in February to take part in the
constitutional referendum as an observer. He told that he met with
Talish residents who remained without settlements due to Azerbaijani
aggression, however, they have a great desire to return to their
village.

“They live in this way since they have constantly been under fire, and
most importantly, their homes have been under sniper fire. Someone
must be held accountable for this”, he said.

He also talked about the tortures of Azerbaijani armed forces on
Talish civilians, as well as the Defense Army soldiers carried out in
April last year, stating that the Azerbaijani side must be definitely
held accountable. “They must face the issue of standing before the
tribunal, they deserve it since these atrocities are violations of
international law. The next incident which angered me was the
beheading of soldier with Yazidi origin after which it was also
displayed. I remembered a photo at the Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute which depicted heads of three Armenians laid on the
table, and on the back were Turks. There are many similar phenomena.
During that time this was a crime, and especially now it is also a
crime”, Vladimir Evseev said.

Asked how he will comment on Russia’s policy to sell weapons to
Azerbaijan in case when Russia always highlights that Armenia is its
ally, the expert said: “Arms sales to Azerbaijan is not an economic
issue for Russia. Armenia believes that by this Russia receives money,
moreover, at the expense of blood of Armenian soldiers. This is not
true since Russia does it to keep Azerbaijan under its influence.
There are many questions in Russian-Azerbaijan relations which are not
related with Armenia. Russia doesn’t want to quarrel with Azerbaijan.
At the same time Russia understands that the level of relations with
the two countries is different. For Russia Armenia is an ally, the
Russian military base is deployed here. There is no Russian military
base in Azerbaijan. We are not considered as allies. We could also
refuse from arms sales, but otherwise, how it would be possible to
maintain influence”, the military expert said.

Syuzi Muradyan