Baku always reacts sharply to any mention of Karabakh – Svetlana Zhurova

Speaking with Alpha News, Svetlana Zhurova, First Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs and a member of the United Russia faction, commented on the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accusing Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky of distorting facts about the war in Karabakh, along with other anti-Russian steps taken by Baku.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s statement was in response to Medinsky’s interview with the RT television channel, in which he remarked that if the Russia-Ukraine conflict along the front line were halted without an agreed peace, “then this will be—you know, there was a disputed region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Karabakh—this region will turn into a huge Karabakh.”

“Baku always reacts very sharply to any mention of Nagorno-Karabakh. When we were in PACE, this topic was always disputed between the two delegations, with each side considering itself to be in the right. In this case, Medinsky thought of it as a certain problem that arose between these countries. And, it would seem, everything was settled, but not completely. He just wants to give historical context, but the Azerbaijani side is always sensitive to this issue. This is, unfortunately, a fact—they react very sharply to this topic. I do not know how to explain such a sharp reaction to Medinsky’s words in a historical context. For them, this is reasonable; they believe that no one from the outside should bring up this topic, because as soon as the description of the situation does not align with their perspective, such a sharp reaction immediately occurs,” Zhurova emphasized.

The MP also noted that she remains under Azerbaijani sanctions due to a past visit to Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I am personally sanctioned by Azerbaijan precisely because of Nagorno-Karabakh. I was presented with a note of protest. At one time, we had a trip that we planned with public and political figures. However, we never reached Azerbaijan. Instead, we were accused of first visiting Nagorno-Karabakh from the Armenian side. It was very offensive, we really wanted to go from the Azerbaijani side, but we were not given this opportunity,” Zhurova noted.

Regarding the closure of Russian channels in Azerbaijan, the MP said that perhaps these are conditions put forward by Europe in exchange for joining the EU.

“I don’t know why they are closing Russian channels. Maybe the explanation is that their citizens don’t need it, it’s unpopular. They probably want to join Europe, but we don’t know what conditions they are setting for them, maybe these are the conditions they are setting. Maybe they want to join the EU someday. Now there is such a tendency—you gain points when you are against Russia. It seems to me that they already want to position themselves with Europe,” Zhurova concluded.