“Mutallibov demanded that Gorbachev deport Armenians from Karabakh”

“Ayaz Mutallibov had the reputation for being rather tolerant, and 20 years later he declares that he forced Mikhail Gorbachev to conduct Koltso (The Ring) operation”, the former First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia, currently the leader of Democratic Party Aram Sargsyan said at a meeting with reporters today, in connection with the recent statements of former Azerbaijani President Ayaz Mutallibov regarding Nagorno Karabakh.

He said the Azerbaijani side has never showed humane feelings for Armenians, while Mutallibov himself in the 1990s demanded that M. Gorbachev should deport all Armenians from Karabakh.

“In 1991 Mutallibov approached me in Moscow and asked me to postpone my meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, promising to stop deporting Armenians in return for that, but I refused,” the speaker noted.

When recalling his meeting with Mutallibov in Moscow in 1995, Aram Sargsyan said at that time Mutallibov admitted that Azerbaijan lost the Karabakh war, but he added that the Armenians should not demand that Azerbaijan recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh.

According to A. Sargsyan, Armenian diplomacy should use these statements of Ayaz Mutallibov in order to respond to Azerbaijan’s misinformation concerning the Ring operation and the Khojalu events.