Russia, as a mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement, is doing everything possible for a compromise to be reached, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia have their own views on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Zakharova said while asked to comment on Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov’s statement that the four UN Security Council resolutions must be taken as the basis for the resolution of the conflict, an APA correspondent reported from Moscow.
She noted that there is an established format for the resolution of the conflict.
“This is really an old problem, which involves finding a compromise. The essence of the conflict’s settlement is finding a compromise between the conflict’s parties, which seem to be taking quite opposite stance,” Zakharova said.
“The situation requires moving forward, and, therefore, contacts in various formats have recently intensified,” she added.
The spokesperson stressed that Russia, as a mediator in the conflict’s settlement, is doing everything possible for a compromise to be reached.
“Of course, we would like a compromise to be found as soon as possible, but not to the detriment of the peoples of the two countries, as well as people living in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Zakharova added.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.
A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.
The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.
Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.
Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.
Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.