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YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov on April 22, who is in Armenia on a working visit. Issues of Armenian-Russian relations and the situation after the military operations unleashed by Azerbaijan in Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone on April 2-5 were discussed at the meeting.
As “Armenpress” was informed from the Department of Public Relations and Mass Media of Republic of Armenia President’s Office, greeting the Russian Foreign Minister, President Serzh Sargsyan mentioned that the agenda of Armenian-Russian relations is quite saturated, and reference is made to the current contemporary issues during different meetings, including top level ones. “It happened so that the visit of the Head of the RF Government Dmitry Medvedev, as well as your visit to Armenia took place during a tense period, and it is not a secret for anyone that this situation is explained by unreasonable activities of Azerbaijan. By waging large-scale military operations against Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan once again demonstrated that Karabakh can never have anything in common with Azerbaijan. By using its entire arsenal, Azerbaijan, of course, was adequately retaliated. But in my opinion, these actions of Azerbaijan pushed the negotiation process to a quite remote arena. We have always had a constructive stance in that process, we have always been convinced that the Minsk Group Co-chairs will finally present their approaches for the settlement of the conflict and will give addressed assessments to the party that refuses those proposals. But unfortunately, Azerbaijanis thought that they can violate the agreements signed back in 1994-1995 and the agreements we reached during this long-lasting negotiation process and remain unpunished. We gave a start to the current phase of negotiations in 2007. For 9 years we were the active participator of that process, tried to find mutually acceptable methods and had a constructive stance. We were convinced that this problem could be settled based exclusively on the principle of mutual concessions, through peaceful means, but today we have what we have. For that reason your opinion is extremely important for me, “So why did it happen?”. Of course, we have our options, but you are much more informed, so we would be very grateful if you introduce your position”, President Sargsyan said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov expressed gratitude to the President of Armenia for the opportunity to meet, presented the results of his talks held before the meeting with the President. “We have already had constructive talks, observes the implementation process of bilateral agreements reached between you and Vladimir Putin. In some aspects we have delays, but anyway, the commitment to all key agreements is preserved. Our main task is to work in the direction of the agreements reached between the Presidents. We also discussed Karabakh conflict settlement and are deeply concerned over what happened. As you know, just from the first minutes of the escalation the Russian side, and personally the President, tried to prevent the violations of those documents signed in 1994-95 that have indefinite duration. We clearly confirmed it and urged not to put under doubt those important documents in any way. And it was possible to end the bloodshed. Nevertheless, we see that the situation has not fully stabilized yet, and we believe that in this phase it is very important to bring into life the agreement reached between you and the President of Azerbaijan 5 years ago under the Russian mediation: mechanisms investigating and preventing incidents, as well as confidence building measures. These measures will maximally reduce any possible risks of an outbreak of the conflict. Respective instructions were given to the OSCE, and we want the German Chairmanship to actively engage in it. Of course Mr. Sargsyan, I realize why you said that it is difficult to return to the negotiation table at the moment. The situation must calm down a little, and people must rest for a while. We once again extent our condolences for the victims of this conflict, but, anyway, I agree with you that this conflict has no military solution, which means that it is necessary to continue making efforts for reaching a political settlement.
Why did the situation grow to such a critical point? I cannot decide for Armenia, Azerbaijan or people of Karabakh, but I believe that if we had succeeded in making progress, even little, on the political arena, if we had outlined common principles, which the sides would take as basis for the elaboration of a legally binding document, it would not only play a key role for the resumption of the negotiations, but would also be a restraining factor for outbreak of violence. But a reiterate, only the parties can reach a solution. We tried, try and will continue trying to help together with the Co-chairs, the USA and France. We have a common position, and as long as I realize, Armenia supports that position, that the trio of the Co-chairs, together with the OSCE must continue its efforts as the key coordinator, according to the mandate that the parties agreed to give to that mechanism. And we do not hail the attempts of searching for parallel ways, or creating other mechanisms that do not enjoy the trust of all the parties. It will merely deviate from the main issue, which is to ensure security, prevent new victims, and at the same time create conditions for a political process”, Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov said.