Azernews.Az

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said a culmination in settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh appears quite realistic.
"Just two to three issues regarding the conflict settlement, which are to be agreed at the next meetings of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, remain unresolved," he told local Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
Such meetings, Lavrov said, will take place shortly after Azerbaijan`s October 15 presidential election.
"First of all, the Lachin corridor is involved. And, as one of the three mediators, we feel that a culmination is quite real. Certainly, it is up to Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve it within direct agreements, but the mediators - Russia, the U.S. and France - who perfectly understand all the subtleties and sensitivity of this process, see the possibility of a culmination," Lavrov said.
The three countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which is brokering the peace process.
The Lachin corridor is a road connecting Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, an Azeri region currently under occupation, with Armenian territory.
The minister said that prior to the escalation of tension in the Caucasus region sparked by the outbreak of the Russian-Georgian armed conflict, "a very good chance" had emerged for advancing Garabagh conflict settlement by holding meetings between Azeri and Armenian leaders with the mediation of the MG co-chairs. Then, a substantial document essentially outlining all principles and mechanisms of a settlement had been developed.
Lavrov went on to say that each of the parties involved in the process of resolving the Garabagh problem has its own "profound interests". In particular, Armenia faces the task of overcoming a blockade in order to further gain access to the rest of the world.
According to Lavrov, the problems that Armenia experienced during the Caucasus crisis, notably, difficulties with uninterrupted transit of goods through Georgia that are vitally important for Armenian citizens, show "an absolute necessity and urgency" of reaching the speediest solution to the Garabagh problem.
"The persistent situation, whereby South Ossetia and Abkhazia [Georgia`s rebel regions] will be under a constant threat of military attack, with the threat of interruption of this transit vitally important for Armenia lingering on, meets no one`s interests," Lavrov said.
He said the importance of preventing this explains Yerevan`s aspiration to unlock the Garabagh conflict as soon as possible, which would serve as a tool not only to normalize its relations with Ankara, but also to open up Armenia`s link to the outside world through the territory of neighboring Turkey.
Georgia launched large-scale military operations on August 8 in its rebel region of South Ossetia to restore its territorial integrity. Moscow responded by sending troops to the pro-Russian region which struck at the Georgian armed forces using overwhelming force. A ceasefire was, subsequently, reached on August 17.