“The first attempt to stop the war occurred on October 7th, when I called Putin to wish him a happy birthday. Putin said he wanted to mediate efforts to stop the war. I said I agreed, inquiring about the terms. We believed that the ceasefire should be without preconditions. In the evening, a second conversation took place, and Putin said that Aliyev had refused.
The next day, Putin said that Aliyev was putting forward a condition – to surrender Fizuli without a fight, and the Armenian forces should withdraw along the Araks to the Khudaferin reservoir so that it would be under the control of Azerbaijan. In addition, Baku wanted to get back those serving sentences for the murder of Guliyev and Askerov, considering it possible to return the prisoners of war. But for this, not a cessation of hostilities was announced, but a humanitarian truce for the burial of the dead, and no obligations not to start a war again. I refused because there were no guarantees that Azerbaijan would not start firing at the retreating troops. Nevertheless, I said that the joint use of the reservoir is possible, the return of Guliyev and Askerov can be discussed if Aliyev tells Russia how many prisoners of war he will return, the surrender of Fuzuli is unacceptable,
The loss of Shushi was a turning point, after Shushi Martuni and Stepanakert remained in danger, and most importantly, about 25 thousand soldiers would be surrounded.
Our fifth attempt to stop the war was on November 9th. Then I signed a document that was worse than the morning version, but better than the other proposed options, one of which provided for the Meghri corridor, and the other for the return of the enclaves of the Tavush region.
