Lavrov: Russia is ready to assist Armenia and Azerbaijan in carrying  out work on border demarcation

ArmInfo.Russia is ready to assist Armenia and Azerbaijan in carrying out border demarcation work. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced this on May 17  during a briefing.

"As for the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the  Azerbaijani side, after this incident occurred, made a statement  explaining the misunderstanding and, most importantly, the absence of  a border that would be delimitation. Nobody there has ever dealt with  this," Lavrov said. At the same time, he noted that the Russian side  proposed to the parties to start this process and offered its  assistance in this matter.  According to the head of the Russian  Foreign Ministry, the Russian side is ready to assist Yerevan and  Baku in providing cartographic material and consulting services.

"Not a single shot was fired, no skirmishes took place. We sat down  and calmly began to agree on how to defuse this situation. They asked  us for assistance. Our military provided such assistance. An  agreement has been reached, I do not see any reasons for whipping up  emotions in this issue, that can be calmly regulated ", - concluded  the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

To note, on May 12 and 13, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces illegally  entered the territory of the Republic of Armenia in the direction of  Syunik and Gegharkunik, advanced 3.5 km and 2 km inland,  respectively, deployed their units and refuse to leave the territory.  In connection with the current situation, Armenia turned to the CSTO  to assist in finding a solution to this issue.  According to  information circulated in the media as a result of the negotiations  that ended the night before and which took place with the direct  participation of the head of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in  Artsakh Rustam Muradov, the parties agreed on practically the  withdrawal of all Azerbaijani troops from the territory of Armenia.  However, at the Sev lich (Black Lake) in the Syunik region of the  Republic of Armenia, for the time being, one joint  Azerbaijani-Armenian post remains. Negotiations should continue in  the coming days.

Today the acting RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, touching upon the  situation resulting from these actions of Azerbaijan, instead of  looking for a solution to the problem, again began to look for the  guilty.  He once again stressed that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces  must leave the territory of Armenia, and added that the current  situation is a crisis and is fraught with the risk of a new  escalation.