Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will pay an official visit to Moscow on March 6-7 at an invitation of his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced about this at a briefing on March 2.

Zakharova noted that the visit has been timed to the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Azerbaijan that will be marked on April 4.

Mammadyarov is expected to have negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Deputy Chairperson of the Council of the Federation Ilyas Umakhanov.

The minister will also deliver a speech at the Diplomatic Academy of Russian Foreign Ministry, said Zakharova.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan will discuss a wide range of issues of bilateral relations, regional and international agenda.

Earlier Minister Mammadyarov said that he will visit Moscow in March, adding that he intends to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement during the visit.

“During my visit to Moscow, we will discuss with the Russian side, which for many years is acting as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, further actions on the conflict settlement,” he said.

Russia along with the U.S. and France is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Zakharova further said that Russia maintains contacts with the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The spokeswoman reiterated that Russia's position is that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be solved by peaceful means.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.

Lapshin's case

Zakharova went on to say that the investigation of the case of blogger Alexander Lapshin, who is under arrest in Baku, continues, and no complaint has been received from him on detention conditions.

The spokesperson added that Lapshin gets all the necessary qualified legal assistance in Baku.

Lapshin will stand trial in Baku for his illegal visits to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

The blogger, who owns citizenships of several countries, paid a number of visits to Azerbaijan`s occupied lands, where he voiced support for "independence" of the illegal regime, and made public calls against Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territorial integrity. The blogger was arrested in Belarus and later was extradited from Minsk to Baku.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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