Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the Armenian leadership has effectively recognized that Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan, Turanews.kz reports.
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that the Armenian leadership had “recorded on paper” their recognition of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh in a statement they signed in Prague in May.
Putin also said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had directly stated that the issue of the status of Karabakh is no longer an issue.
“The Armenian leadership publicly stated this, counting the entire territory before 1991 within the framework of the Azerbaijan SSR and naming a figure that included the territory of Karabakh itself,” Putin said. “This is not our decision – this is the decision of today’s Armenian leadership.”
The statement signed by the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders in Prague called for a “comprehensive and lasting peace agreement” between the two countries. The agreement also called for the return of all occupied territories to Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh.
