Nagorno-Karabakh President Bako Sahakian (Source: Armenpress)

STEPANAKERT (ArmInfo)—”Baku was going to settle the Karabakh conflict by means of a blitzkrieg,” Nagorno-Karabakh President Bako Sahakian said in an interview with Lenta.ru, when speaking of the four-day war in April.

He says that on April 2-5, 2016, Azerbaijan breached the 1994-95 ceasefire agreements and unleashed large-scale hostilities against Karabakh along the entire border. “The actions of Azerbaijan can be qualified as war,” Sahakian said. He noted that Azerbaijan had been preparing for war for 22 years by conducting an aggressive policy in information, diplomatic and military-political fields. “We have repeatedly warned about the dangerous and tragic consequences of that policy. Unfortunately, it was impossible to prevent the war. Only at the expense of big material and human losses the adversary had to stop its actions,” he said.

When speaking about Russia’s intermediary role in the Karabakh peace process, the Sahakian noted that Russia and the other two co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group – the US and France – have always held a constructive and impartial stand, doing everything possible to maintain peace and stability in the region to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the conflict. “We highly appreciate the contribution of each of these countries,” he said, stressing the importance of relations with Russia.

Regarding Moscow’s possible recognition of the Artsakh amid recognition of Abkhazian and South Ossetian people’s right to self-determination and the Crimean people’s will expression, Sahakyan said that Nagorno-Karabakh has elaborated a multi-layered policy on achievement of international recognition. The President stresses that there is already tangible success in this dimension. “Moreover, we think that it is just a matter of time and hard work. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic really deserves to be recognized internationally,” he said.

When commenting on possible settlement of the Karabakh problem, which would satisfy all parties, Sahakian said that the solution should be found from within. “First of all, it is necessary to restore the full format of the talks with participation of Karabakh as a full party to the talks. By the way, the format was officially recognized by the OSCE during the Budapest summit in 1994. Moreover, Baku should also revise its stand and approaches. It is the revanchist-based destructive policy of Baku that is the key obstacle to the conflict settlement,” Sahakian concluded.