Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko announced that he has long offered options for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but the latter did not agree to them, and the president of Azerbaijan had no choice but to use force.

“When we were presiding in the CSTO, I looked into the matter. I went to Ilham [Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev] to talk to him then. We had a friendly talk,” Lukashenko said at his meeting with Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Stanislav Zas on Tuesday, BelTA reported.

“I asked him in a joking manner then: ‘Ilham Geydarovich, you must help Armenia if you come to an agreement.’ We were talking about five and a half or six districts - Azerbaijani districts, which were seized by Armenians, as they claimed. Armenia admitted that ‘it was not our land, it is Azerbaijan's'. Except for Karabakh. Then give it back! If then, when I suggested it, those areas had been returned, there would have been no war. Ilham would not have been motivated to start this war. You asked them to give the districts back, and they did. It would have been the status of Karabakh that had been left undecided. They could have been working on it in a calm mode. But neither Serzh Sargsyan nor Nikol Pashinyan agreed. I raised this issue twice over the time,” the Belarusian leader shared the details.

Lukashenko also said that back then he offered Ilham Aliyev to think about investing in Armenia in case of the conflict settlement to finally reconcile and demonstrate it to the people of the two countries.

“I suggested that Azerbaijan come to an agreement with Armenia, help Armenia in some way so that people could see that you have reconciled, made peace and so on, [oil was really expensive then.] ‘How much could you invest in Armenia?' I asked. ‘At least $5 billion,’ he said. Back then, they were building pipelines. They went around Armenia. Ilham wanted [natural] gas and oil pipelines to go through Armenia. He said then: ‘Why should I go around to Georgia? Armenia is a better route. That will be profitable for us.' And further to Turkey. It was really profitable,” said the president of Belarus.

At the same time, he noted that his ten-year proposals never came to pass.

“They cornered the president of Azerbaijan. He was left with no other choice but use of force. This could not be delayed any longer. More than a million refugees created tension,” the Belarusian president added.

He called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to find a final solution to this matter.

“They need to reach an agreement! Nakhichevan, in order to have a free passage. It seems that they have reached an agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh. For the time being. Russia is ensuring this process there. Why do they have to kill each other now? Almost 300 people have been killed and they are still engaged in discussions. They must calm down and reach an agreement,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added, in particular.