By Akbar Mammadov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that specific parameters have been formulated to be agreed upon to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Lavrov made this remark during his speech at the Moscow State Foreign Relations Institute on September 1, Trend reported.
"Russia participates in the international efforts to create conditions for the settlement of various conflicts, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, for the consideration of which the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, the US, and France, respectively, was set up,” Lavrov said.
The minister noted that the group also consists of several other countries, including Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Turkey, although by the decision of this group, the co-chairs – Russia, the USA, and France were empowered to work daily to create the necessary atmosphere in which the parties themselves could find generally acceptable agreements.
“We don’t write scenarios for solving the problem, but we create conditions so that the parties could agree among themselves,” added Lavrov.
He pointed out that over the past 18 years, the first such documents have been developed between the parties, and great work has been done.
“The documents formulated principles that reflect both the principles of the UN Charter and the principles of the Helsinki Final Act. They also formulated specific parameters to be agreed for this settlement to take place,” the minister said.
Lavrov highlighted that recently several incidents took place which has seriously increased tensions and didn’t contribute to a positive role for the efforts of the co-chairs to be successful in creating the proper atmosphere.
Furthermore, the minister touched upon the documents on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He said that these documents contain a denouement that will ensure justice.
“Our line is based on the set of documents that have been developed over almost 18 years. There are the so-called ‘Madrid principles’, and also updated versions of documents that were approved by the parties as a basis for further work.”
Lavrov noted that these documents have been deposited in the OSCE Secretariat, and added that suggestions are voiced that it is necessary to abandon these documents and start from scratch, or even launch some kind of plan "B”.
“We believe that this will be a big mistake and are convinced that what has been achieved over these years should remain the basis of our future efforts. I will not describe in detail what is agreed there,” Lavrov said.
He noted that this is a fairly confidential part of the job.
“But I can assure you that there is a denouement that will ensure justice for both the Armenian and the Azerbaijani representatives.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97
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