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On July 31, the Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrey Nastasin, stated at a press conference that “through the active mediation of Russia, at the cost of the lives of 6 of our peacekeepers, the escalation of the situation in Karabakh in September 2023 was stopped within one day.”
Fact Investigation Platform found out that the evidence of those days, as well as the statements of the last president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Samvel Shahramanyan, prove that the Russian official is not presenting the situation accurately.
Thus, in the interview on October 28, 2023, the President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Samvel Shahramanyan, expressed the opposite point of view about the actions of the Russian side. In particular, in his interview to the Artsakh public TV station, he mentioned:
“When the hostilities started, I realized that we were alone against Azerbaijani aggression. The Russian side, one could say, was in the status of an observer, and it was us who should be able to settle our issues. Together with the Defense Forces and other law enforcement agencies as well as our population, we launched retaliatory operations to hostilities.Those operations made it possible to start negotiations with Azerbaijan, which lasted for about 12 hours. It was clear that the operations should be stopped since the forces were unequal.”
As for Nastasin’s statement about the death of 6 Russian peacekeepers, it is manipulative as the 6 Russian peacekeepers died not to protect the population of NK, but by accident.
The peacekeepers were actually killed by the fire opened by the Azerbaijani side on the vehicle transporting them, which cannot justify their direct participation in combat operations.
On September 21, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan reported for the first time about the death of six Russian soldiers. The Azerbaijani side admitted that on September 20, near the village of Janatagh (Martakert region), the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan mistakenly opened fire on a car with five Russian peacekeepers. In a telephone conversation, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev apologized to Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressed deep condolences over the death of Russian peacekeepers. As for the 6th soldier, the Azerbaijani side declared that he died from the fire by the Armenian side.
Thus, the statements of the authorities of Artsakh refute the claim of the Russian official that on September 19, 2023, the cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh took place through the Russian mediation and at the cost of the lives of Russian peacekeepers.
Arpine Hovhannisyan
