As you know, on May 9, Armenian nationalists celebrate not so much the victory in the Great Patriotic War over Nazism (which is spiritually close to them - suffice it to recall the cult of the Nazi Nzhdeh), but the seizure and occupation of the Azerbaijani city of Shusha. The Abkhaz separatists' friends went even further, for which at least 2 Armenian battalions fought, including the battalion named after S. Baghramyan. They are no longer celebrating victory in the Great Patriotic War, the hero of which raised the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag Meliton Kantaria. They threw out of their home. For them, the main “holiday” is “victory” in the fratricidal separatist war of 1992-1993, which is called “patriotic”.

It is well known that the victories of the separatists in Abkhazia became possible "under the guise of negotiations mediated by Russia." When the Georgian side believed the separatists and their Kremlin patrons, the Georgians withdrew their troops and heavy weapons, and the separatists did not even think to fulfill the agreement.

Few people know that the "victory" of the Armenian nationalists and "Artsakh" separatists in Shusha in May 1992 and the genocide they carried out earlier in the city of Khojaly were organized in the same way. Those. preparations were underway for the seizure of Azerbaijani cities and the genocide of the civilian population "under the guise" of negotiations "for peace."

The main "mediator in the negotiations" in Karabakh in the winter and spring of 1992 was not Russia (as in Abkhazia - although the Russian side supported the separatists here.), But the Islamic Republic of Iran, which the Azerbaijanis trusted - after all, was formally a Muslim Shiite state. It seemed inconceivable that brothers in faith would allow the genocide of the same Muslims in Karabakh ... Alas, it turned out that this is possible...

Then, in Tehran, they not only shyly "forgot" about their "unsuccessful" diplomatic mission of "mediators", under the cover of which monstrous crimes took place. For many years, Iran later became one of the main "sponsors" of the Yerevan regime and in fact supported the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.

Here are excerpts from the scientific work of I. Ye. Sidorov. “Iranian mediation in the Karabakh conflict” (https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/iranskoe-posrednichestvo-v-karabahskom-konflikte-kak-faktor-irano-azerbaydzhanskih-otnosheniy). This work, although written from a pro-Armenian position, allows us to trace chronologically how the Armenian aggressors achieved "successes" under the cover of Iranian diplomacy:

“On February 25, 1992, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati arrived in Baku. Intending to use the experience of resolving the Iranian-Iraqi confrontation in Karabakh realities, the Iranian envoy suggested that the conflicting parties agree on a ceasefire, at least for a short period. So, already on February 26, a conversation took place between the Chairman of the NKR Supreme Council Artur Mkrtchyan and the Azerbaijani Minister Heybat Abbasov, as a result of which the parties agreed to a ceasefire from February 27 to 9 am on March 1.
After this conversation, Velayati went to Ganja, where he intended to wait for the agreement to come into force.

However, the Armenian military command has already planned a military operation to seize the city of Khojaly, which had important strategic importance for both Azerbaijan and Armenia. Khojaly was a kind of gateway to Stepanakert, the capital of the NKR, and in addition, it was located in the middle between the northern and southern parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is why it was used by Azerbaijanis to conduct artillery fire on Armenian settlements. Finally, the only airport in the NKR was located in Khojaly. All these factors ensured the exceptional strategic importance of the city for the belligerents. The reason why Armenia was in a hurry with the operation was also that Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia were accommodated in Khojaly, which was regarded by the Armenian side as a deliberate change in the demographic situation in the city.

As a result, Tehran's peace initiatives did not achieve their goal, and on February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces launched an assault on Khojaly, which was accompanied by inevitable civilian casualties.

Of course, there was no direct fault of Iran in the Khojaly events. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan turned into the sphere of ideological struggle for living space and historical justice, where there could be no easy compromises and unequivocal solutions. Nevertheless, the image of Iran, especially among the Azerbaijani population, has undoubtedly been severely damaged. Therefore, without wasting time, especially given the growing activity of Turkey, Russia, and numerous international organizations in the region, Tehran made a second attempt at mediation.

Tehran offered Azerbaijan and Armenia to return to negotiations and provided its territory for these purposes. In March 1992, a summit meeting of representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Iran was held in Tehran, as a result of which an agreement on a temporary ceasefire was reached, the possibility of lifting the blockade of Armenia by the Azerbaijanis, the deployment of military observers, and the exchange of prisoners was discussed. On March 15, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides signed a declaration on the resolution of the conflict. On March 19, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali expressed gratitude to the Iranian Foreign Minister for the efforts made by Iran to prevent the escalation of the Karabakh conflict.

After a little diplomatic preparation, Iran again invited the representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia to Tehran for a new round of talks. On May 8, 1992, Acting President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Yakub Mammadov and President of the Republic of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan through the mediation of Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani signed a "Joint Statement of Heads of State in Tehran", according to which the parties agreed to regularly organize summit meetings to discuss all problematic issues in bilateral relations, to regulate the conflict exclusively by peaceful methods based on the documents of international law. The parties also agreed that the special representative of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran M. Vaezi was to go to the conflict zone, after negotiations with whom the parties would initiate a ceasefire and at the same time unblock communication lines and roads.

However, once again, the agreements did not work. 5 hours after the completion of negotiations in Tehran, the Armenian armed forces launched a military operation, during which the settlements of Shusha and Lachin were captured.

This allowed Armenia to create a corridor for direct communication with the previously isolated territory of the NKR, which, in turn, led to the transfer of the general strategic initiative into the hands of the Armenian command. All calls of the Iranian Foreign Minister to follow the agreements reached by the parties were ignored. Tehran's mediation policy did not protect Azerbaijan from another catastrophe. Of course, a third attempt was out of the question."

It should be noted that IE Sidorov cynically writes about the terrible genocide of the peaceful Azerbaijani population of Khojaly as “inevitable victims of the civilian population”. He also cynically asserts that "of course, there was no direct Iran's fault in the Khojaly events." Although it is obvious that it was Tehran's “diplomatic cover” as a “mediator,” which at that moment, as co-religionists, was completely trusted by the Azerbaijani side and allowed the Armenian aggressors to carry out such heinous crimes.

The Russian "mediators in the peace negotiations" behaved the same way in the fall of 1992 on the eve of the seizure of Gagra by the separatists and in 1993 on the eve of the seizure of Sukhumi, with whose "mediation" real agreements were concluded. Which, as it turned out, were not worth the paper on which they were written.

On the one hand, the Russian side-armed the separatists, sent a regular Russian army to fight for the separatists, and on the other hand ensured that the Georgians, believing the “mediators”, would lull their vigilance, withdraw troops and heavy weapons, and did not even try to evacuate the civilian population. , who later became a victim of genocide.

It should be noted that both in Gagra and in Sukhumi, Armenian formations, including militants who had the experience of the war in Karabakh, took part in the "victories" of the separatists and atrocities against the civilian population. They knew very well the effectiveness of the "diplomatic covered by the mediators" from the experience of the seizure of the cities of Khojaly and Shusha in Karabakh. As had the experience of the genocide of civilians.

The Armenian nationalists themselves also already admit that they succeeded in capturing the city of Shusha precisely during the "peace talks" organized with the mediation of Tehran. For example, here is the post of the Armenian nationalist telegram channel "Northern Artsakh" (https://t.me/RepublicofNorthernArtsakh/3032). It speaks almost directly about the role of Iran:

“On May 8, 1992, the President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, acting President of Azerbaijan Yakub Mammadov, as well as President of Iran's mediating country Hashemi Rafsanjani signed a joint statement on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to which Mahmoud Vayezi had to return to the region - in Baku, Yerevan, and Stepanakert - to develop appropriate mechanisms for the implementation of the ceasefire. Iran was the first country to appear in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with a mediating mission.

On May 8, the day this statement was signed, the Armenian armed forces liberated Shushi, after which Iran's mediation mission was interrupted."

And the post ends in a very characteristic way:

"Commander of the special battalion of Shushi, one of the brightest figures of the Artsakh war of liberation, Zhirayr Sefilyan today is under harsh criticism from the part of the Armenian society."

Let us remind that it is the terrorist Zhirayr Sefilyan who speaks today both against the Zangezur corridor, which, they say, “will sever the connection between Armenia and Iran” and for the transit corridor to Iran. Considering the role of Iran as a "mediator" in the aggression against Azerbaijan and the seizure of Azerbaijani cities, such a "touching" concern of the terrorist about maintaining and expanding ties with Iran is quite understandable.

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