Statement by Georgia on its readiness to mediate in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The Prime Minister of Georgia announced his country’s readiness to act as a mediator between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Karabakh issue. According to the AN news agency, Irakli Garibashvili, at a joint press conference with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, expressed hope for reaching a peace agreement with Armenia in the near future. Regarding Georgia's neutrality, Garibashvili said: "We are ready to help the mediation process and facilitate negotiations by creating a friendly atmosphere." Earlier, Aliyev announced the possibility of holding bilateral or trilateral meetings in Tbilisi to normalize relations with Armenia. On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh during a telephone conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. According to the AN news agency, Putin discussed bilateral relations, as well as regional issues, in separate telephone conversations with the leaders of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. After the Republic of Azerbaijan invaded Karabakh in the past few days with the goal of dominating the region, Armenian officials agreed to lay down their arms and hand them over to Russian peacekeeping forces. Since then, the Armenian people of Karabakh, who lived there for about 3 decades, left the area and moved to Armenia.