YEREVAN, August 30. /ARKA/. During a press briefing today a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement on the Karabakh conflict made during a visit to Yerevan on August 24.

In Yerevan, Merkel said that Germany was ready to assume responsibility for the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. “It is necessary to resolve this conflict in a good atmosphere and Germany is ready to support Armenia in this matter, " Merkel said

"This (the settlement) is to be decided by the countries that are directly involved in the settlement efforts and that should be done with an understanding of the effectiveness of the existing formats,’ Zakharova said adding that Merkel’s statement should be viewed in the context of these factors.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by a successful referendum. 

On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. 

Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year. 

On April 2, 2016, Azerbaijan launched military assaults along the entire perimeter of its contact line with Nagorno-Karabakh. Four days later a cease-fire was reached. -0—