news.az, Azerbaijan
Feb 27 2010

Russia not to weaken efforts for peace settlement of Karabakh conflict
Sat 27 February 2010 | 08:54 GMT Text size:

Vladimir Dorokhin Russia is interested in the resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno Karabakh on the basis of
norms of international law.

"Russia is sincerely interested in the settlement of this conflict on
the basis of commonly accepted norms of international law. The
difficulties in the negotiation process will not weaken our efforts in
this direction as of mediators", Russian ambassador in Baku Vladimir
Dorokhin told in his interview with Azerbaijan’s Echo.

He noted that Russia is proud of its `crucial participation’ in the
attainment of the ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan
signed in 1994.

"I would not belittle the negotiations and signing any documents. A
complex negotiation process on the conflict is underway and it can be
attributed to the category of the most complicated ones in the world",
the ambassador said.

Asked about the preference to be possibly given to any party in case
hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan are launched, Dorokhin
voiced hope that "Russia will never face the need to choose, which is
proposed in this hypothesis".

As for the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, Dorokhin said that
people in Russia do not know much about Azerbaijan.

"One moment had an unpleasant affect on me in period of preparation.
It turned out that Russia has the only scientific book about
Azerbaijan throughout almost 20 years of its existence as an
independent state. However, upon arrival in Baku, I felt that we know
too little about your country. This is bad and I always repeat this.
Russia should know its partners and assess them adequately, especially
such close ones as Azerbaijan", the ambassador said.

Interfax-Azerbaijan