{"id":43555,"date":"2017-08-17T18:23:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T14:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1905.az\/en\/?p=43555"},"modified":"2017-08-17T18:23:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T14:23:38","slug":"russia-says-karabakh-settlement-among-foreign-policy-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/russia-says-karabakh-settlement-among-foreign-policy-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia says Karabakh settlement among its \u2018foreign policy priorities\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia pays special attention to the resolution of the\u00a0<\/span>Nagorno-Karabakh<\/a>\u00a0conflict and views this issue as one of its foreign policy priorities, Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>APA<\/a>\u00a0reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"mariya-zaxarova\"<\/p>\n

Russia has always supported steps aimed at reducing tensions in the\u00a0<\/span>Nagorno-Karabakh\u00a0<\/span><\/a>region, said Zakharova, noting that the\u00a0<\/span>OSCE<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Minsk Group co-chairs have repeatedly and unequivocally stressed the need to take concrete steps in this direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe importance of taking concrete steps was also underlined in the summits held in Vienna in May 2016 and in St. Petersburg in June 2016,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said she thinks the implementation of the co-chairs\u2019 proposals depends on the will of the parties to the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our part, we are doing everything possible to stabilize the situation and ensure the continuation of peace talks. This was the main issue during the tripartite meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in April in Moscow,\u201d added Zakharova.<\/p>\n

She noted that the Minsk Group co-chairs are currently working on the organization of the next meeting of the presidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn July this year, they [the co-chairs] negotiated on this issue with the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in Brussels. The consultations will continue in the second half of September within the framework of the UN General Assembly session, after which a relevant statement will be made,\u201d added Zakharova.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>Nagorno-Karabakh\u00a0<\/span><\/a>conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.<\/p>\n

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the\u00a0<\/span>Nagorno-Karabakh\u00a0<\/span><\/a>region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes\u00a0<\/span>Nagorno-Karabakh\u00a0<\/span><\/a>and seven adjacent districts (Lachin,\u00a0<\/span>Kalbajar<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Aghdam<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Fuzuli<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Jabrayil<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Gubadli<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>Zangilan<\/a>), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.<\/p>\n

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.<\/p>\n

Dealing with the settlement of the\u00a0<\/span>Nagorno-Karabakh\u00a0<\/span><\/a>conflict is the\u00a0<\/span>OSCE<\/a>\u00a0Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group\u2019s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.<\/p>\n

Besides, the\u00a0<\/span>OSCE<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.<\/p>\n

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,\u00a0<\/span>PACE<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>OSCE<\/a>, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia pays special attention to the resolution of the\u00a0Nagorno-Karabakh\u00a0conflict and views this issue as one of its foreign policy priorities, Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday,\u00a0APA\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actual-news-2"],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1905.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}