The truce agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh reached in Moscow last week is not being fully respected and hostilities are continuing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with his Armenian counterpart.
"Your visit was agreed upon quite a long time ago, but of course, it is taking place against the background of serious efforts involving many members of the international community, efforts to unblock tension in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone," Lavrov said.
"Last Friday and Saturday, at least part of the Saturday, we spent in this building together with our Azerbaijani colleague, an important agreement was reached at the initiative of President (Vladimir) Putin. And we see that so far this agreement has not been fully respected and the fighting is continuing," he added.
Battles on the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh began on September 27. Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of unleashing military operations; Karabakh reports about artillery shelling of peaceful settlements of the unrecognized republic, including its capital Stepanakert. Armenia has declared martial law and - for the first time - general mobilization, arguing that Ankara actively supports Baku. Azerbaijan has introduced partial mobilization.
On October 9 the heads of foreign ministries of Azerbaijan and Armenia arrived in Moscow at the invitation of Russian president and together with their Russian counterpart they had been negotiating for more than 10 hours. As a result, Yerevan and Baku agreed to cease a fire in Karabakh from midday of October 10, to exchange prisoners and deceased as well as to agree upon specific details of the truce. However, already on Saturday the sides began accusing each other of truce violations.
The conflict in Karabakh began in 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijani SSR. During the armed confrontation in 1992-1994, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts. Since 1992, negotiations on peaceful settlement of the conflict have been conducted within the OSCE Minsk Group led by three co-chairmen - Russia, the United States and France. Azerbaijan insists on preserving its territorial integrity, Armenia protects the interests of the unrecognized republic, as the latter is not a party to the negotiations.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from RIA Novosti