Lavrov: Azerbaijan ready to grant rights to Karabakh Armenians as those of own citizens

The Armenian leadership has recently been talking not about status, but about the need to ensure the rights of the Armenian population in Karabakh. The Azerbaijani side is ready to discuss this and provide rights that other residents of Azerbaijan have, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference on European security issues, Report’s Russian bureau informs.

“When they [the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia] arrived in Sochi, they brought from Prague the document which said that they wanted to sign a peace treaty, guided by the UN Charter and the Almaty Declaration of December 1991. And the Almaty declaration on the creation of the CIS clearly states that the borders between the new states will be based on the administrative borders between the union republics of the former USSR, while the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was clearly part of the AzSSR. This was approved by Azerbaijan, Armenia, and France, and Mr. Michel within the framework of the document - without any reservations. This, of course, facilitates further work, because it solves the issue of how to approach the status of Karabakh," the Russian foreign minister said.

Lavrov also spoke about Russia’s efforts in the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan: “We held about 10 meetings with Baku and Yerevan.”

He noted that after Azerbaijan’s victory in the 44-day war, Russia continues to help the parties in unblocking transport and economic communications in the region.

“In addition, we agreed that Russia will assist the parties in delimiting the border and assist in agreeing on a peace treaty,” Lavrov added.

He said that the EU is trying to compensate for the buried OSCE Minsk Group by intervening as a mediator in the process of normalizing relations between Baku and Yerevan.