Lukashenko on how Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict could have been avoided
The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, at today’s meeting with the heads of delegations participating in the 19th meeting of the CIS heads of security agencies and intelligence services, said that at one time the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan could have been avoided
Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled the proposal voiced to the then leadership of Armenia to transfer a number of regions around Karabakh to Azerbaijan, receiving compensation of $5bn for this, “I then found myself together with Aliyev [President of Azerbaijan] and Sargsyan [President of Armenia in 2008-2018] and publicly proposed that it is necessary to settle everything what is possible today. Then Aliyev said that they were ready to give $5bn to restore Armenia and populate their five regions (there was no talk about Karabakh, that it will be part of Azerbaijan). I invited Sargsyan to go this way. If they did, there would not even be a reason to start this war. Everything would be agreed upon. Why didn’t they do it at that time? They didn’t do it and now they have to face the consequences. Has Armenia become better? No. It’s not easy for Azerbaijan either. Ilham [Aliyev] is a smart person in this regard. We talked with him in Dubai and discussed people who are in Karabakh. He told me that they won’t touch anyone. On the contrary, they want everyone to understand that Azerbaijan a civilised country. They will help at the social and everyday level. The authorities there [in Azerbaijan] are strong, they are able to do this: both support and help.”
