Russian FM never goes anywhere empty-handed, says spokesperson

  21 April 2016    Read: 1223
Russian FM never goes anywhere empty-handed, says spokesperson
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov never goes anywhere empty-handed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a press briefing on Thursday, APA
Asked of the authenticity of the information that the minister has gone to Yerevan with the plan of freeing five occupied districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh and deploying peacekeeping forces to the zone, Maria Zakharova said that Sergei Lavrov never goes anywhere empty-handed:

“But I cannot say whether it’s a plan or a document. The Russian minister has gone there to learn the opinions of the parties. That’s the essence of Russia’s intermediary mission,” she added.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

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