Leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia should understand their responsibility for situation in Nagorno-Karabakh - Russian lawmaker

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia should understand their responsibility for preventing further escalation of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentian Matviyenko told reporters on Monday. "I think that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan should understand their responsibility for preventing any escalation of the conflict, any military actions," Matviyenko said. She added that it is necessary to immediately stop any military actions and sit down at the negotiations table. The lawmaker noted that Russia will continue making every efforts to prevent further escalation of the conflict and to launch resumption of peace talks. Matviyenko reminded that the settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh has always been "the focus of constant attention of the Russian leadership." "Of course, we are very concerned by the escalation of this conflict," she noted. The speaker reminded that Russian leadership called on both sides to immediately stop military actions and prevent further deterioration of the situation. "For a long time in the trilateral format, in the framework of OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Minsk Group, Russia has called for only peaceful political resolution of this problem. There is no place for military scenario here," Matviyenko concluded. On Saturday, April 2, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly deteriorated when the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defense authorities of Armenia and of Azerbaijan. Neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan fell out with each other in the late 1980s because of Nagorno-Karabakh, the disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians. In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories. Thousands left their homes on both sides in a conflict that killed 30,000. A truce was called between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh republic on one side and Azerbaijan on the other in May 1994. Talks on Nagorno-Karabakh have been held on the basis of the so-called Madrid Principles suggested by co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) -- Russia, France and the United States -- in December 2007 in the Spanish capital. They include three key principles written in the Helsinki Final Act: refraining from the threat or use of force, territorial integrity and the right to self-determination. Read more