Thursday, January 18 2024 16:55

ArmInfo.The issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh has been closed personally by the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated oon January 18 at a press conference on the results of the activities of the Russian Foreign Ministry in 2023.

The diplomat recalled that in the documents signed by the leaders of  Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia in November 2020 and subsequent ones,  the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was described as a zone of the  Russian peacekeeping contingent. "And there was an understanding  between the leaders of the three countries that negotiations on the  topic of status still had to be continued in order to finally agree  on this issue. Imagine our surprise when Macron (President of France,  ed. note) held a conference of the European political community in  the fall of 2022 in Prague, in which Armenians and Azerbaijanis  participated, and it was noted that a document was approved at the  meeting, in which it is mentioned that Azerbaijan and Armenia  recognize each other's territorial integrity in full accordance with  the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, that is, according to him, Karabakh  - within the borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region within  the Azerbaijan SSR, he said.

 "We did not know that such a statement was being prepared, and when  it was made, we drew conclusions based on what Baku reported: that  the issue of the status of Karabakh was closed, closed personally by  the Prime Minister of Armenia," Lavrov said.

At the same time, the diplomat once again pointed out the desire of  the West to make every effort to achieve the conclusion of a peace  treaty between Yerevan and Baku on their platform. "The fact that  Azerbaijan is ready to sign it on Russian platform, where efforts to  end the conflict and to build an entire system of interaction for a  settlement began, is also a fact. I don't know to what extent Yerevan  is ready for this, although relevant messages were sent to the  capital of Armenia a long time ago," the Russian Foreign Minister  summed up.