Russia has always urged the parties to the Karabakh conflict to approach matters in a constructive manner, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, commenting on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement that “Karabakh is recognized by the entire world as an integral part of Azerbaijan.”

Zakharova emphasized that she isn’t Aliyev’s spokesperson and she has no idea what he meant. “We can give our assessment, but not comment,” she said.

She said that they are seeing many political statements in different emotional levels with different levels of connection to historic context and modern context. “We are moving forward from the negotiations agenda which we have on the table. Russia is working with the documents agreed between the parties and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs,” Zakharova said.

According to Zakharova, the objective of Russia and the other mediators is to achieve a final resolution of the conflict and contribute to a maximal acceleration of the process.

“From our side we have always made calls for constructive approach to the parties. And I can’t and wouldn’t want to suspect that this itself is their goal because they are all responsible politicians and are expressing their peoples’ expectations. During the entire period of this conflict the populations of the countries involved have always delegated the conflict resolution issue to their leadership. For this reason we are dealing with our role, as we think maximally and constructively, and we are calling on everybody to undertake constructive steps in this direction,” Zakharova said.