YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: After the interview of RA First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan to the Public Television Company, the trilateral ceasefire agreement signed in 1994 began to be discussed in the public domain.

In this regard, Zhoghovurd daily spoke with Vladimir Kazimirov, the head of the Russian mediation mission in 1992-1996, the RF [(Russian Federation)] President’s authorized representative on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, trying to understand how it happened that at that time Azerbaijan managed not to sign the final protocol of the Moscow agreement.

On May 16-17, 1994, the meeting of Sargsyan, Mammadov, and Babayan takes place in Moscow, during which the document "Protocol on the procedure for the implementation of the protocol of February 18, 1994" is discussed. An agreement is signed to cease fire exactly as of midnight on May 17, as well as a document is prepared that envisaged the separation of Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops, the creation of a buffer zone between the parties, the deployment of peacekeeping forces.

The document is signed by Grachov, Sargsyan, and Babayan. Mammadov does not sign the document; he is urgently called to Baku. Azerbaijan refuses to sign the final protocol of the Moscow agreement, but the ceasefire becomes a reality.

"Azerbaijan immediately explains that the Azerbaijani side intends to conduct negotiations on the settlement of the conflict only within the framework of the CSCE [(Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe)], and there can be no question of the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone," Kazimirov recalls.