Azerbaijan is not an ally of Russia in Transcaucasia, Azerbaijan is an ally of Turkey not only in Transcaucasia, but also in principle. This was stated by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Konstantin Zatulin, commenting on the fact that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev refused to come to Moscow on May 9.
"I can only say, regardless of Aliyev's arrival or non—arrival, I understand perfectly well that on the one hand, of course, it is desirable for Russia to develop normal relations with Azerbaijan, but this does not mean looking into Azerbaijan's mouth and praising Azerbaijan for what it is not," Zatulin quotes News.am.
According to the Russian deputy, he would very much like to have normal relations between the two countries.
"But that doesn't mean I'm on the team from Baku should forget about what is happening before our eyes in 2020-2023. Azerbaijan, having discarded long-term negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with the assistance of Turkey, actually seized Nagorno—Karabakh and forced, I can't say otherwise, the entire Armenian population to leave there," Zatulin stressed.
And this, he stressed, does not correspond in any way to the spirit of the negotiations that took place before, nor to the interests of Russia as a whole, which is interested in ensuring that there are no wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"But at the same time, it can in no way be interested in expelling anyone's population and, for example, declaring Armenian monasteries with a thousand-year history Albanian or someone else's," Zatulin added.
He noted that he does not know now whether, starting from the very fact of Aliev's arrival or non-arrival in Moscow, it is necessary to "sew some kind of fur coat" for Russian-Armenian relations.
"However, of course, we have all sorts of incidents from time to time. Just now, the deputy of the Milli Majlis was not allowed into Russia. It was May 4th. In response, there were notes and indignation in Azerbaijan. And at the same time, no one in Azerbaijan was going to pay attention to the expressions in which this deputy had previously commented on his colleagues in Russia or Russian-Azerbaijani relations in general," Zatulin said.
He recalled that he was also banned from entering Azerbaijan.
"I read with interest in the responses about this mention of myself as a person who is banned from entering, and a special "humanism" and "nobility" In this case, Azerbaijan sees that I have been informed in advance that I am banned from entering. Therefore, I don't feel stressed when I go to Azerbaijan and they deport me from there. As it turns out, the deputy of the Mejlis, who had been making Russia bonfire before, experienced stress, and then, as if with a blue eye, came to Russia in order to hold his events," he said.
The State Duma deputy stressed that he refuses to consider "some kind of mercy from Azerbaijan" in the announcement of his official ban.
"I have never been packed to visit Baku. And I'm not making such plans," he added.