In the wake of a recent meeting between the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani heads of state in St. Petersburg on the 20th of June, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov announced that Armenia and Azerbaijan had come to a tentative agreement on the Karabakh conflict. Mammadov announced the news in an interview with Azerbaijani television channel, ANS:
“Over the course of the meeting, the parties present put forward their preference for a gradual resolution of the conflict that will be carried out in stages. First, five regions currently under Armenian occupation will be released and returned to Azerbaijani control: Aghdam, Fizuli, Cebrailli, Zangilan and Qubadli. Then, two more regions (Lachin and Qalbacar). The corridor connecting Armenia to Nagorno Karabakh will be more clearly defined. Finally, the status of Nagorno Karabakh itself will be decided upon. We have an initial agreement on these matters from all sides.”
The Russian and Armenian governments were quick to react to Mammadov’s statements. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian countered that “no agreement on the conflict’s resolution had been reached at the Saint Petersburg summit” on Monday, while the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said: “This is an attempt by the Azerbaijani side to interpret the understandings reached … in a peculiar fashion.”
