Lavrov calls for strengthening confidence-building measures between Armenians and Azerbaijanis

YEREVAN, June 9. /ARКА/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved, but added that it is not worth focusing attention on it now.

"The status of Nagorno-Karabakh must be reconciled with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Russia, USA, France), but now it is worth focusing not on this, but on the return of peaceful life to the region," he said at Primakov Readings forum.

According to him, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs at this stage, probably, should not stir up the status problem, but contribute instead to strengthening confidence-building measures, solving humanitarian issues, so that Armenians and Azerbaijanis again begin to live together in security and economic prosperity.

“And then, I assure you, in a couple or three years, if we establish such a life, all status problems will be solved much easier,” Lavrov said.

On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and  phosphorus weapons.

After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, apart from several regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, also the town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia. 

A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. -0-