Russia, Armenia committed to peaceful solution to Karabakh conflict

MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. Russia and Armenia can see no alternative to a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, says a joint statement of the two countries’ presidents - Vladimir Putin and Serzh Sargsyan - posted on the Kremlin site on Wednesday. "The president of the Russian Federation and the president of the Republic of Armenia have confirmed their adherence to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict exceptionally by peaceful means on a basis of coherent principles of the non-use of force or a threat to use force, territorial integrity of the states, equality and the right to self-determination," the document reads. The two leaders emphasized it was crucial to implement the agreements reached at the summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg in May and June 2016 in an attempt to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They focus on preventing escalation in the conflict zone, stabilizing the situation and creating conditions to promote the peace process. Putin and Sargsyan highly praised efforts of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) seeking to find a peaceful solution to the crisis. History of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The situation along the contact line of conflicting sides in Nagorno-Karabakh deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2, 2016 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. On April 5, a ceasefire agreement was reached with Russia’s mediation. The participants of talks on Nagorno-Karabakh in Vienna on May 16, 2016, involving the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia and mediated by the foreign ministers from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries agreed to observe ceasefire in the region in compliance with the 1994-1995 accords. The parties to the conflict also agreed to complete as soon as possible the work on an OSCE tool on investigating incidents along the contact line. In a trilateral statement adopted on June 20, 2016, following a summit of Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in St. Petersburg, the sides confirmed their commitment to the normalization of the situation along the disengagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Mountainous Karabakh) is a mostly Armenian-populated enclave inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. It was the first zone of inter-ethnic tensions and violence to appear on the map of the former USSR. Even almost a quarter of a century after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Karabakh remains a so-called 'frozen conflict' on the post-Soviet space, as the region is the subject of a dispute between Azerbaijan and the local Armenian population that draws on strong support from fellow-countrymen in neighboring Armenia. Read more