ArmInfo. The entrance of Russia -Russian peacekeepers – in Artsakh is needed neither by Iran or the West, nor by Armenia with Azerbaijan, or by Artsakh itself. Director of the Armenian Center for Strategic and National Studies Manvel Sargsyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo, commenting on the recent statement of the hero of Artsakh Samvel Babayan.
On March 15, ex-commander of the Artsakh Defense Army, Samvel Babayan, proposed to abandon the Madrid principles, voicing the idea of granting a territorial mandate of Russia as a mechanism for resolving the Karabakh conflict.
"Opinions about the intention of Moscow to deploy troops in Artsakh sound periodically. However, I can say that in the context of the uniqueness of the status quo, the absence of international peacekeepers around Artsakh, this is almost impossible. And none of the countries that have an interest in the region will allow the appearance of foreign troops here, of course, each because of their own reasons. This explains the periodic statements of the co-chairs that none of the OSCE Minsk Group countries can participate in the deployment of peacekeepers in Artsakh, "he stressed
Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, represented by the co-chairs from Russia, the United States and France, has been involved in resolving the Karabakh conflict. At present, the settlement process is proceeding on the basis of the Madrid Principles put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in 2007 and the Madrid Principles updated in 2009, among other things, providing for the deployment of a peacekeeping force in the conflict zone.
According to Sargsyan, who secured the tripartite signing of the Armistice Agreement in 1994, Russia received a mandate from the CSCE to organize negotiations and deploy peacekeepers. And all parties approved the original version of the relevant agreement, although now no one wants to admit it. However, later, after the transformation of the CSCE into the OSCE, this topic was closed at the suggestion of the other mediating countries, and the agreements remained hanging in the air. "Four months later, tripartite negotiations began on reaching the" Big Political Treaty "between Armenia, Artsakh and Azerbaijan. I headed the Artsakh delegation at these negotiations. After four months, the negotiations were interrupted due to the insurmountable contradictions that arose between Moscow and the CSCE. Armenia then supported the idea of a large treaty, but defeated Azerbaijan did not. Baku unsuccessfully addressed NATO with a request to intervene in the situation. For the Artsakh delegation, however, the deployment of peacekeepers was epriemlemo always, as a result of any agreement, " Sargsyan concluded.