Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Russia, being one of the three co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group tasked to mediate for peace in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has vowed to make independent efforts for contributing the stalled peace talks.

“OSCE Minsk Group’s brokering activity will continue, and in addition, the Russian side will make independent efforts to help the parties reach a compromise based on approaches agreed with the Minsk Group co-chairs,” said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry at a December 24 briefing.

Moscow has recently intensified efforts for resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Currently, the new proposals put forward by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on solving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict are under consideration.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has recently said these proposals reflect the agreements reached during the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Sochi, Newport and Paris and have been worked out based on the renewed Madrid principles.

The recent meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, which was expected to bring revival to the peace talks, hasn’t yielded the desirable results.

No breakthrough was observed during the meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia in Bern, Switzerland on December 19.

However, Russia believes that the meeting will be a positive step in conflict resolution.

“We believe the summit that took place is a definite phase in the work on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement,” Zakharova said.

The presidents, as Zakharova noted, had an opportunity to talk face to face and discuss all the proposals, and to clarify the positions on disputable issues.

She added that the unsatisfactory situation along the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops was reviewed during the meeting.

The Armenian armed forces have increased ceasefire violations resorting to provocations on the contact line. They continued shelling Azerbaijani positions right after the presidential meeting.

However, Moscow is hopeful for continuation of the negotiation to settle the conflict peacefully.

“Russian side is positive about the continuation of dialogue at highest level, which is aimed at peaceful settlement of the conflict through political and diplomatic means,” Zakharova noted.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

The sides to the conflict currently hold talks based on the renewed Madrid principles, which envisage return of occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, ensure the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence, future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh and etc.

However, the peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group have been largely fruitless so far.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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