Armenian experts support Sergey Lavrov's statement on Nagorno-Karabakh

On January 17, at a press conference on the results of 2016, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not exclusively an internal affair of Azerbaijan. The Russian Foreign Minister has made it clear that the only alternative to settle the Karabakh conflict is to solve it in a peaceful way. This opinion was voiced by Armenian experts, questioned by the "Caucasian Knot".

In particular, the Russian Foreign Minister has reminded participants of the press conference of the decisions concerning the Karabakh conflict made by the UN Security Council at the peak of the conflict with the demand to cease fire. According to Sergey Lavrov, the demand for liberation of the occupied territories remains in force; "however, in any case, not by force and under determination of the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh."

"The above is written in the documents of the Minsk Group, as well as in statements accepted and signed by the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The peaceful settlement of disputes is very clearly written in the above document," emphasized Sergey Lavrov.

While commenting on the press conference to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, political analyst Sergey Minasyan, the deputy director of the Caucasus Institute, noted that the Russian Foreign Minister expressed the position of the international community on prevention of military solution to the Karabakh conflict.

According to Sergey Minasyan, the Russian Foreign Minister has drawn attention of the conference participants to the Madrid principles, among which all the principles are common and no principle can be separated from others, including, in particular, the principle relating to the determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh's status.

According to political analyst Ruben Megrabyan, an expert of the Centre for Political and International Studies, the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh ceased to be an internal affair of Azerbaijan after its aggravation in spring 2016. Ruben Megrabyan believes that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has emphasized the fact and made it clear that Azerbaijan should coordinate its steps with co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.