YEREVAN—Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Yerevan and Baku on Friday to deliver his president Dmitry Medvedev’s new proposals on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the two sides.
Details of the new proposals were not immediately made public, but Lavrov noted that Medvedev took into consideration the issues discussed last month at a summit he hosted with presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev in the Russian city of Kazan.
President Sarkisian promised to study the proposal thoroughly and to provide Armenia’s response in a timely manner, according to the presidential press office.
“We want the conflict to be resolved and resolved in a way which will bring ultimate peace and stability to the region,” Sarkisian reportedly told Lavrov during their meeting Friday.
Lavrov expressed confidence that there was momentum for an agreement.
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told Lavrov during their meeting in Yerevan that an agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh would be possible only if Azerbaijan gave up a number of amendments it suggested during the Kazan meeting.
“If Azerbaijan drops its amendments—its ten amendments [suggested] in Kazan—then an agreement is possible,” Nalbandian told Lavrov.
The Russian foreign minister then traveled to Baku where he presented the same document to Aliyev.
Lavrov announced Medvedev’s intentions to propose a new package for the Karabakh peace talks after meeting Nalbandian Wednesday in Moscow.
“Moscow remains committed to an array of agreements that were earlier endorsed by the Presidents of the United States, France, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia,” said Lavrov, referring to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at press conference in Moscow Wednesday.
Lavrov warned against attempts to change the format of the negotiations headed by the OSCE Minsk Group, which brings together Russia, the US and France. Lavrov’s sentiments were echoed by Nalbandian, who touted the Minsk Group as an effective mechanism to contribute to the negotiating process.
“The change of the formant of settlement of the Karabakh conflict would not be an effective choice at this moment and would divert the attention from the core of the issue,” said Lavrov at a joint press conference with Nalbandian.
Lavrov underlined that the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, who have become a real tool in the negotiation process, are working hard to search for ways of settlement not only within the framework of the negotiation process, but also in the direction of reinforcement of trust and security along the line of contact. “We think it’s time to make a decision,” Lavrov said.
not one inch of karapagh or its buffer zones, armenia needs to get out of these negotiations. azerbaijan is trying to intimidate the negotiations. get out now and say you have nothing to do with it, if they want to negotiaite, talk to karapagh.
do azeris or americans or russians, think anything else will work? we both had refugees, on both sides, the difference is azerbaijan, the oil rich nation, continues to leave them poor while blaming armenia. they use it as a propaganda tool. do they really expect the native armenian population to go back to living under the turk? the treatment of armenians and racism in azerbaijan says that new pogroms would happen on a much worse scale.
if the US wont recognize our genocide, despite all the facts in THEIR archives, then they should grant us recognition. we earned it and we deserve it too for all those broken promises for years. and when they come to sarkissyan to ‘bridge the gap’ between turks and armenians, what does sarkissian do? he squanders it by bowing to the americans.
when the time comes and we have something the US wants, WE should be expecting things FIRST!
*recognition of karapagh
Here we go again with another proposal on Artsakh. Are we going to hear again in another article in the mainstream US media that peace is just around the corner?
The whole thing has turned into a circus.
Someone please explain how Armenia is going to resist Russian pressure over Artsakh when Russia supplies nearly all of Armenia’s natural gas, owns the nuclear power plant, and controls so much of the Armenian economy.
It is also unclear what sort of compromise either Armenians or Azeris could make. One side says independence, while the other insists otherwise. There is no middle ground there, is there?
What are the parties talking about? What would be the basis of an agreement?
No one can explain this, and yet we are told that the OSCE sees a solution around the corner.
Someone is lying. What is going on? Some serious analysis please.
These big contries keep gambling over the Armenian issues. Don’t our leader see it?
President Sarkisian helped win the war in 1990 and now lets hope he helps win the peace in 2012. All the make or break factors (demographics, economics, technology and radar systems) are not in Armenia’s favour. Putting on a brave, stubborn face and issuing defiant statements won’t change the fact that time is not on Armenia’s side. I wish Sarkisian the very best but judging by his frail health he probably has no more than 15 years to go. People who enter the final stages of their lives have to think about their legacy and what they will answer their creator on judgement day. Facing the hordes of so called “Patriots” in Armenia and “Nationalists” in the diaspora (who have turned the genocide into their self professed religion and eager to see Armenia for ever miserable) will be a colossal task. Sarkisian is the only person who can stand up to the challenge and deliver the necessary concessions that will guarantee Armenia’s stability for the next 40 years.
And what is Lavrov’s package? What exactly entails in his proposal? That’s what we Armenians wish to know.
Why is the Armenian Government waisting so much time in the negotiations over Artsakh when we all know the Azeri’s will not back down until they get their way. First of all the world powers know well that Dictator Stalin is the one whom took away all our Historic Territories of Nakhichevan & Artsakh & gave it the Azeri’s, then he gave Javakh to the Georgians (Stalin was a Georgian) besides this he also appeased the Turks by givine Kars & Ardahan to Turkey. It is time that the Armenian Government incorporate Artsakh as part of Armenia. We are too slow in putting things together.