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Lavrov warns against politicizing Nagorno-Karabakh peace process

The process is moving along with difficulties, the Russian Foreign Minister said

YEREVAN, May 6./TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Thursday against attempts to politicize the process underway in Nagorno-Karabakh to establish peace.

"This process must not be politicized now. It is moving along with difficulties, because among the issues that are being ironed out are the routes to connect this region, as well as ensuring what is now called the connectivity of inter-regional relations," Lavrov explained at a news conference following talks with Armenian counterpart Ara Ayvazyan.

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"The issues regarding the line of contact, boundary delimitation and demarcation are being settled. These are practical, understandable things that must be solved so that the region could breathe again and leave peacefully," Lavrov explained.

"Those who are trying to postpone these issues until later and first engage in political discussion are putting the cart before the horse in my opinion. It is much simpler to solve political issues once people have started to live normally - both Azerbaijanis and Armenians, live together like it had used to be for decades and centuries," Lavrov added.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku and Yerevan have disputed sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh since February 1988, when the region declared its secession from the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic.

On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stopped at the positions that they had maintained, and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin Corridor that connects Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Also, some districts were handed over to Azerbaijan.

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