No Agreements Can Be Reached without Nagorno-Karabakh’s Consent, Says Lavrov

It is impossible to reach any agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh without the consent of the population of that region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday following talks with his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, TASS reports.

When asked about Russia’s attitude towards the proposal to return Nagorno-Karabakh to the negotiating table as a full-fledged participant in the settlement process, the minister said it was up to the parties themselves "to coordinate and determine the composition of the participants in the negotiations." "At an early stage of consultations and subsequent negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, when hostilities stopped, Nagorno-Karabakh was a party to the relevant agreements and talks, which began after the cessation of hostilities. At some point, the Armenian leadership, one of the previous presidents, made the decision that Yerevan would represent the interests of Nagorno-Karabakh," he explained.

"As members of the group of co-chairs, while promoting that process, we can only seek to ensure that it proceeds in line with the general consent. It is clear to everyone that it will be impossible to finalize any agreements without the consent of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia will just not support them," he stressed.

According to Russia’s top diplomat, at today’s meeting, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan mentioned his public statement, which said that "the final agreements should take into account the interests of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan." "It is hard to argue with that," the minister concluded.

As for the parties to the conflict, they should be ready for a compromise, which should reflect a real and fair balance of interests, Russia's top diplomat told a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on Monday.

"The principles of territorial integrity, self-determination and exclusively peaceful settlement of disputes are enshrined in all documents that are discussed by the sides. In any case, a final solution should take into account all these principles, and neither Yerevan nor Baku argues against this. Any treaty, moreover on this challenging issue, is a compromise," Lavrov said.

"As co-chairs [of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh], we try to make sure that this compromise is fair and reflects a real and fair balance of interests," the foreign minister said.

Moscow will continue active mediation efforts on various platforms in order to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, the Russian foreign minister stated. "Russia is ready to continue active mediation efforts as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group and a participant in talks with Armenia and Azerbaijan," he pointed out.

The Russian top diplomat highlighted "the importance of facilitating talks between the parties [to the conflict] and the need to take steps to ease tensions in the conflict zone based on the existing agreements, including those signed at the April meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group," Lavrov added.

"We believe that it is important to continue implementing the measures agreed by the ministers, which were discussed at a meeting between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan earlier in the year," the Russian foreign minister noted.