BAKU, October 2. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev thinks that Russia and Turkey play an important role in the development and stability of the South Caucasus in the post-war period.
"Today I think about Turkey and Russia as two neighbors of Azerbaijan, and one of them is a neighbor of Armenia, [that play a] very important role in the stability, security and future development. As you probably know, there was recently a meeting between presidents of two countries. Among other issues they discussed the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We consider the role of both countries as a very positive stabilizing role. I think this is the bulk of the new regional cooperation configuration," the Azerbaijani leader said in an interview with Spain’s EFE news agency. The text of the interview was published on Saturday on the AzerTAC new agency’s website.
The Azerbaijani president reiterated that Russia and Turkey had set up a joint monitoring center in the district of Aghdam in Nagorno-Karabakh. At the same time, he noted that Russian peacekeepers undertake measures to protect peace in the areas inhabited by Armenians. "So, new realities already are in place. Every country has to take into account these realities," he said.
In the fall of 2020, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated with armed clashes occurring on the disputed territory. On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides would maintain the positions that they had held, a number of regions would be controlled by Azerbaijan, and Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to the region along the line of engagement and the Lachin corridor.