By Rashid Shirinov

Moscow does not exclude the discussion of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during the meeting of Russian and French Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Jean-Yves Le Drian on June 20 in Moscow.

“We do not exclude the raising of this issue during the discussion of a number of international problems. We are in dialogue with our French colleagues, including on this issue,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on June 15.

She noted that the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is in finding a compromise of seeming diametrically opposed positions.

“The situation requires progress and resolution, therefore contacts in different formats have lately intensified,” Zakharova said.

The spokeswoman added that Russia, as a mediator, is doing everything so that a compromise would be found, but not to the detriment of the peoples of the two countries.

The conflict between two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.