MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh arouses serious concern in the Kremlin, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
"The Kremlin is worried. Indeed, the situation arouses serious concern in the Kremlin," he said.
He refrained from comments on statements by a number of Russian upper parliament house members who are seeking to place responsibility for the current deterioration in Nagorno-Karabakh on Turkey. "I would rather refrain from comments," he said. "It is a very sensible matter which requires delicate and serious approaches in terms of assessments or actions."
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According to the Kremlin spokesman, Russian President Vladimir Putin so far has had no telephone conversations with either the Armenian of Azerbaijani leaders, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev. "No, he has had no conversations," Peskov said. "You know, intensive dialogue is maintained at the level of ministers. If there are any contacts, we will be glad to inform you."
Apart from that, Peskov said that so far there are no plans to organize a meeting between the conflicting parties at Putin’s as it was done during the previous escalation of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh back in 2014.
"So far, I can say nothing because there are no agreed joint events," he said when asked whether there are plans to organize such meeting now. "You know that top-level meetings are typically preceded by very serious work at the working expert level. Any top-level meetings should be well organized. Expert-level work is now underway."
The situation along the line of engagement of the conflicting parties in Nagorno-Karabakh deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2. Following fierce armed clashes at the contact line, the parties to the conflict accused each other of violating truce.
The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians, broke out in the late 1980s.
In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories. Thousands left their homes on both sides in a conflict that killed 30,000. A truce was called between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh republic on one side and Azerbaijan on the other in May 1994.