Russian MFA: Nagorno-Karabakh future status should be determined as a result of political negotiations
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrey Nesterenko commented on the Nagorno-Karabakh Parliamentary Elections of May 23. The statement particularly reads:
“Moscow supports the principle of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, as well as other fundamental norms and principles of international law.
As you know, we do not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state.
We are convinced that its future status should be determined without the use of force as a result of political negotiations between all parties in the framework of the Minsk process.
However, Moscow does not believe that the peace settlement would depend on the elections in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia, in close collaboration with its partners in co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, USA and France) will continue to vigorously help the Azerbaijanis and Armenians to reach compromise solutions to the Karabakh knot as soon as possible.”
Remind that in the frames of the sitting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers’ Council in December, 2009, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as their counterparts of the OSCE Minsk group co-chairing states (Russia, France, the USA) made a joint statement over their commitment to move forward the peaceful settlement of the conflict in accordance with the three basic principles of the international law: national self-determination, territorial integrity and non-use of force.
The Nagorno-Karabakh (armed) conflict broke out back in 1991, when, subsequent to the demand for self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, Azerbaijani authorities attempted to resolve the issue through ethnic cleansings, carried out by Soviet security forces (KGB special units) under the pretext of the implementation of the passport regime and by launching of large-scale military operations, which left thousands dead and caused considerable material damage. A cease-fire agreement was established in 1994. Negotiations on the settlement of the conflict are being conducted under the mediation of the OSCE
Minsk Group Co-Chairmen (Russia, USA, France) and on the basis of their Madrid proposals, presented in November, 2007.
Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993, by continuing to provoke arms race in the region and openly violating on of the basic principles of the international law non-use of force or threat of force.