Moscow calls on the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to show restraint and in practice lead the situation in the region to de-escalation, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.
"We call on the parties to show utmost restraint, to avoid strikes on civilians, to prevent interference by external forces. It is necessary to conduct in practice a ceasefire, de-escalation of tension and resumption of negotiations in order to achieve a peaceful settlement based on basic principles," she said.
The diplomat reminded that on November 1-2 Russian President Vladimir Putin had an intensive exchange of opinions with leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan. "The situation around Nagorno-Karabakh was touched upon in conversations between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Deputy Foreign Minister with foreign colleagues. Another attempt by the international community to find a speedy solution to the dramatic situation around Nagorno-Karabakh was the meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs with the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Geneva on October 30," she added.
Jihadist movement
Zakharova also said that the transfer of jihadists from the Middle East to Nagorno-Karabakh could lead to a terrorist enclave in Transcaucasia.
"According to information received, the transfer of members of international terrorist organizations from the Middle East, whose hands are elbow in blood, as we have already said, into the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," she said. - "We're talking about radical mercenaries. They profess the ideology of jihadism. All this cannot but cause us serious concern, because in the future such a development of the situation is fraught with the emergence of a new terrorist enclave now in Transcaucasia".
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier reported, the number of mercenaries from the Middle East in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone is approaching two thousand.
Baku and Yerevan have been contesting Nagorno-Karabakh's membership since February 1988, when the region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan SSR. During the 1992-1994 armed conflict, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts.
The situation in the region escalated on September 27, when active battles began on the disputed territory. Both sides report deaths and injuries, including among civilians. Ceasefire agreements were reached three times already, but almost immediately the parties to the conflict began to exchange mutual accusations of their violation.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov / TASS
Based on materials from TASS