SOCHI, October 2. /TASS/. The political process of settling the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh is stalled, attempts to advance in this direction have failed so far, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the 16th annual session of the Valdai International Discussion Club on Wednesday.
"As for Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation along the line of contact has been rather calm lately, very few incidents and they are not large-scale ones. Bodies of those who died were exchanged, a detainee swap is being prepared in small groups of people, but still a process is going at least. Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh - Russia, France and the US - are working closely and tightly, I believe they have met three times this year already with foreign ministers, particularly in April in Moscow with me present," the minister said. "Speaking of the situation on the ground, I’d say that it is much calmer than a year ago but the political process is stalled, attempts to advance it has been failing."
He pointed out that the parties are putting forward serious statements which help to establish an atmosphere of political process. "However, being the co-chairs we are working in unison with Americans and the French, thank god, this must be one of the few situations where we have an exact same vision, we have basic documents - we do not want to revisit them, we want to find a way out based on this fundamental principles, which has been discussed many times already. Nevertheless, this way out should be found through direct dialogue," Lavrov emphasized.
"There are contacts, but the dialogue on a settlement has not been relaunched yet. However, I do not see a clear threat, or a hidden one, that large-scale hostilities can resume here," Lavrov concluded, adding that Russia will do everything possible to avoid it.
The highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Mountainous Karabakh) is a mostly Armenian-populated enclave inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. It was the first zone of inter-ethnic tensions and violence to appear on the map of the former USSR in February 1988. Then, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region declared independence from Azerbaijan, a republic within the Soviet Union at the time. In 1992-1994, hostilities broke out in the region between pro-Baku forces and Armenian residents, which resulted in the Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto independence. In 1994, a ceasefire was reached but the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been strained since then.
Since 1992, the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) co-chaired by Russia, France and the US have been holding talks to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.