It is necessary to stop stirring up confrontation rhetoric and stop fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following negotiations with Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić.
Lavrov noted that he informed his colleagues from the Secretariat of the Council of Europe about how Russia sees the situation in Karabakh and what steps it is taking in this direction.
"We are convinced that the most important thing now, and perhaps it does not require much effort - to stop immediately stirring up confrontation rhetoric both between the parties and through responsible international players. It doesn't require any big efforts. The next absolutely necessary step, and it should be taken simultaneously with the termination of the confrontational rhetoric - is the cessation of hostilities, the cessation of strikes on civilian objects, and, of course, this is the same requirement that is contained in the statement of the presidents of Russia, the United States and France as heads of state of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The same is contained in the Moscow document which was concluded by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Armenia with our assistance on October 10, the same is confirmed in the document which they agreed upon on October 18 trying to stop the bloodshed again," the minister emphasized.
Battles on the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh began on September 27. Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of unleashing military operations, in Karabakh they report about artillery shelling of peaceful settlements of 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 and martial law in some places. The leaders of Russia, the US and France called on the opposing sides to stop fighting and commit to start negotiations without preconditions.
On October 9 the heads of the foreign ministries of Azerbaijan and Armenia arrived to Moscow at the invitation of the Russian president and together with their Russian counterpart they held negotiations for over 10 hours. As a result, Yerevan and Baku agreed to ceasefire in Karabakh from midday of October 10, to exchange prisoners and bodies as well as to agree upon specific details of truce. However, on the same day, the sides began accusing each other of truce violations.
Earlier Yerevan and Baku decided to declare a truce from 00.00 on October 18 (23.00 Moscow time on October 17). Nevertheless, already on Sunday night, the parties accused each other of the ceasefire violation, and on Sunday morning Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Shushan Stepanyan said that the Azerbaijani side had launched an offensive in the south direction of the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh - on the border with Iran.
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 Nagorno-Karabakh is not a party to the negotiations.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TRIA Novosti