The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is currently in Baku gave an interview to ITAR-TASS, which outlined the contours of a future settlement on Karabakh.
Question: A tripartite work of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Iran and Russia is ongoing. This is a new, but long-planned format. As I understand, the events in Nagorno-Karabakh have slightly changed agenda. Yesterday, upon arrival in Baku You met with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. I will assume that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh was the main topic of your conversation. Could you tell us about the main content of your conversation with Ilham Aliyev? What ways out of this situation do you see?
Foreign Minister Lavrov: By the time when we met with Ilham Aliyev immediately after my arrival in Baku, the situation has stabilized. You know that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on telephone with his counterparts in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is arriving in Yerevan today, and tomorrow will be in Baku. The heads of headquarters of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia agreed (we mediated in the process) to cease hostilities. A ceasefire was announced, which is now generally respected. We are watching the situation. The main thing is that both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the regime.
Yesterday we noted the state of affairs in this way. Today we will continue the conversation on the level of Foreign Ministers. In addition to a tripartite meeting, there will be bilateral meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan E.M.Mamedyarov, and tomorrow in Moscow, which will host the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers, and will take place a long-planned meeting with Armenians Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.
The main task now is to prevent the outbreak of violence again. Yesterday we discussed with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev (I hope this will be discussed with the participation of the Armenian side), that it is very important to go back to the ideas that have been fixed in the joint statements of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, three or four years ago, when the meeting took place with the participation of the presidents of our countries. In addition to efforts on the track of political settlement, the search of agreement how to deal with unlocking this whole situation, in principle, there were discussed issues related to confidence-building measures on the line of contact, keeping in mind the presence of the dead. There have been cases that ended with the victims on both sides, people were taken into captivity, it is necessary to exchange the bodies of those killed. Then there was the idea to breed snipers on the contact line. It is very risky, when people look at sights and see each other every hour, every minute - someone cannot stand it. Such steps have been planned long ago.
By agreement of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, together with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (in addition to Russia, it is France and the United States) was preparing specific steps. There is even a document not approved until the end, but it exists, and the work on it has been lasting for several years. I believe that the current situation will spur us all, and make us approve and implement these measures as quickly as possible.
Yesterday, during the meeting with Ilham Aliyev, I touched on this topic. He supported this approach with the understanding that we will introduce these measures not for the perpetuation of the status quo (no one wants), but in order to stabilize and normalize the situation now, to create a more favorable atmosphere for the political process, in which Russia, in addition to the efforts of three co-chairs with our American and French partners, will take own initiatives.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, and prior to him President Dmitry Medvedev, actively promoted various ideas that will unblock the situation through the liberation of the regions around Karabakh, while addressing the issue of its status. I will not go into details, but several options are on the table. Yesterday at a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan we also touched upon this issue. We will continue our efforts. -02D-
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