No schemes imposed from outside can replace the dialogue between Baku and Yerevan, said Dmitry Savelyev, a member of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, Report’s Russian bureau informs.
He was commenting on a statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
“Let me remind you that in 1991 both countries signed a declaration on respect for each other’s territorial integrity. As experience shows, with the desire and political will, the governments of sovereign countries are able to resolve the most difficult issues themselves, and an attempt to impose any solutions from outside is a direct path to escalation,” the Russian MP said.
Savelyev noted that the attempts of the Armenian side to create a picture of the insolubility of the issue through negotiations is a manipulation: “Unfortunately, it is precisely the desire and political will of one of the parties that we do not observe in this situation: the attempts of Armenian politicians to create a picture of the insolubility of the issue through negotiations are nothing more than a political manipulation behind which there is an obvious attempt to fail to comply with previously undertaken commitments. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on July 25, at a meeting with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, personally proposed to immediately open the Aghdam-Khankandi road to solve the problem. That is, there is an opportunity to solve the humanitarian problem right now, but it seems that it is not the problems of the Karabakh population that concern the Armenian side at all. There is an avoidance of dialogue in order to push through their point of view with the help of external interference. But this does not work this way.”
“To resolve conflict situations, further lasting dialogue is needed rather than attempts to put pressure on one of the parties to the negotiations. Moreover, in my opinion, it is completely illogical for Armenia to involve the West in this process, whose attempts to ‘enforce peace’ did not lead to anything good in modern history. We need to look for alternative ways to deliver goods and passengers, and not portray a dead end where there is none,” Savelyev said.