Diplomat: The war made part of the "Lavrov Plan" a reality"

ArmInfo.Today, we can state that through the 44-day war, at least some of the points and provisions of the "Lavrov plan" were translated into reality. Such  opinion was  expressed by the former Foreign Minister of Artsakh, Ambassador  Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Arman Melikyan.

"To begin with, it should be noted that the "Lavrov plan" has never  been published anywhere. At any rate, I have never seen it in  writing. In general, the" Lavrov plan " was presented as the approach  of Russian experts and political circles, which came into circulation  following the results of the April war. The approach according to  which the Armenian side was offered to hand over the territories to  Azerbaijan exclusively in exchange for a safe and, if possible,  peaceful situation on the line of contact," he stressed.  Thus, the  presence of a conflict of Russian interests in the region after the  collapse of the USSR, according to the diplomat, should not have been  news to the same former co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Richard  Hoagland. As well as the interests of other countries represented in  the region at one level or another.

The co-chair of the Minsk Group from the United States in 2017,  Richard Hoagland, published an overview article on the website of the  International Center for Conflict Resolution, in which, emphasizing  the importance of the role of the Minsk Group in resolving the  conflict, he nevertheless put the role of Moscow to the fore. "After  the appearance of the "Lavrov plan", I asked my colleague, the  Russian co-chairman, Ambassador Popov, whether the Kremlin would  actually implement it if Yerevan and Baku accepted it. He answered  honestly: "Of course not." Then it became clear to me that  Nagorno-Karabakh is not a bilateral issue between Armenia and  Azerbaijan, in fact, it is a trilateral issue in which Russia plays a  key, if not a decisive role," Hoagland said.

According to Melikyan, the United States cannot be indifferent to the  future of the South Caucasus. And there is no doubt that the United  States has had, has and will continue to play a fairly active role in  this region, which is the reason for the recent activity of American  diplomats.

"In this light, the information exchange and exchange of views  between American and Russian diplomats cannot and does not form the  basis for their own opinion on almost any issue. In other words, the  statement of the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group about  Moscow's lack of intentions to apply the "Lavrov plan" did not mean  that Russia was not going to implement it. What we have clearly seen  by the results of the 44-day war, " the diplomat concluded.