Russia has offered Azerbaijan and Armenia assistance in border delimitation and demarcation issues, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Monday.
"As for the situation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, the Azerbaijani side made statements after the incident occurred, explaining what happened as a misunderstanding and, most importantly, the absence of a border that would be delimited and demarcated. No one had ever done that there. We proposed to the parties that they start such work. We are ready to assist them in that: by providing them with cartographic material and advisory services," he said.
Lavrov pointed out that Russia sees no reason to stir up emotions about the situation on the border: "Not a single shot has been fired and there have been no clashes there. They sit down and calmly discuss how to defuse the situation and ask for our assistance. Our military provided this assistance, and the agreement was reached. I don't see any reasons to stir up emotions in this rather routine, but in any case a quietly resolved issue".
On May 12, the Defense Ministry of Armenia reported that Azerbaijani armed forces tried to carry out "certain works" in one of the borderline regions of the Syunik region for "border adjustment". According to the ministry, after the measures taken by Armenian units, the Azerbaijani military stopped these works. On the same evening acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan convened a session of the Armenian Security Council, during which he called the events infringement upon Armenia's territory. According to him, Azerbaijani armed forces crossed the state border of Armenia, reaching 3.5 km deep.
In turn, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that its troops move "on positions belonging to Azerbaijan". The sides have held several times over the past few days to resolve the situation. The latest took place on May 16 with the mediation of the Russian side.
After the end of hostilities in the conflict zone around Nagorno-Karabakh last fall, when seven districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh came under Baku's control, Armenia's border with Azerbaijan became directly adjacent to the Syunik and Gegharkunik regions.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: AP / TASS
Based on materials from TASS