Azerbaijan, Baku, 4 June /Тrend News corr S. Agayeva/ "Russia has not yet reacted to Azerbaijan's demand to urge Armenia to withdraw its troops from the occupied territory," Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vladimir Istratov said to journalists on 4 June.
"Russia as the key player in settling of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict must call on Armenia to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan," Spokesperson for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Khazar Ibrahim said this week as response to the statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that there is no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on-going for 20 years.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and Nagorno-Karabakh's seven surrounding regions. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful, but fruitless negotiations.
For peaceful settlement of the Nagorb-Karabakh conflict in 1992 about 10 OSCE countries established Minsk Group. Since 1997, Minks Group includes co-chairmen from three countries - USA, Russia, France.
"Azerbaijan did raise the issue to Russia, but I do not know whether it was raised to the Minsk Group. As to withdrawal of military forces from any of the territories, as I know Russia has not yet reacted to the issue," Ambassador said.
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