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Armenian Foreign Minister arrives in Moscow

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan is in Moscow on a short-term working visit

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan arrived in Russia on a short working visit, press secretary for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan announced on Wednesday.

"The Armenian Foreign Minister is in Moscow on a short-term working visit," she wrote on Facebook.

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.

Moscow brokered a humanitarian ceasefire that took effect at 12 noon local time on October 10 but was violated. Later, the foreign ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan announced plans to declare another ceasefire at midnight on October 18, but the hostilities continue and the warring parties keep blaming each other for violating the truce.