Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9
Trend:
Russia, together with the US and France, is doing everything to create conditions for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volynkin told Armenian media on Feb. 9.
He also stressed that the OSCE Minsk Group (MG) is responsible for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, at the same time noting that the OSCE MG co-chairs are only intermediaries.
“Neither Russia, nor France or the US can have a specific solution to the conflict,” he said. “This problem can be settled only by Armenia and Azerbaijan themselves.”
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.