Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 7
Trend:
The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is still far from being stable; Moscow doesn't plan to stop work on the conflict's settlement, RIA Novosti agency quoted the Russian president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Apr.7.
To stop on achieved is simply impossible and no one is going to do this, Peskov said.
Moscow, since the beginning of the conflict's escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh, has applied and continues to apply decent efforts to create conditions for its settlement, according to Peskov.
He noted that the large work at various levels was carried out in order to stop the shelling.
These efforts of Russia have been mentioned by the participants of the process, said Peskov adding that Moscow, of course, will continue its consistent policy.
He also acknowledged that the escalation of the conflict has led to significant setbacks in terms of Nagorno-Karabakh problem's settlement.
Peskov said that very good, positive steps have been achieved prior to the recent escalations, and now due to the setback, a lot will have to be achieved again.
On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers.
The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.
Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.