Mammadyarov: If Russia engages in Karabakh issue with all  seriousness, the status quo will change

ArmInfo. "The April battles and the armed incident that took place at the Azerbaijani-Armenian border on December 29, 2016 once again demonstrated that the presence of Armenian troops in Nagorno Karabakh is the main source of tension 

in the region", Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told APA. 

He recalled that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have repeatedly 

declared at the level of heads of state that the status quo is 

unacceptable and unsustainable. "Azerbaijan highly appreciates 

Russia's efforts to achieve a ceasefire during the Moscow meeting 

held on April 5 last year at the level of chiefs of the General Staff 

of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Armed Forces. However, the April 

battles once again showed that Russia, as an OSCE Minsk Group 

co-chairing country and a neighboring country, should intensify its 

efforts for an early solution to the conflict. I'm fully confident 

that if Russia engages in this issue with all seriousness, the status 

quo will change, stability will be restored in the region and the 

withdrawal of Armenian troops will be ensured", APA quotes 

Mammadyarov as saying. 

Commenting on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement that 

the Armenia- Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not an internal 

affair of Azerbaijan Mammadyarov stated that the entire international 

community recognizes and supports the territorial integrity and 

sovereignty of Azerbaijan. "With regard to the peace process, the 

negotiations, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, is an 

international platform for the settlement of the Armenia- Azerbaijan 

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in line with the norms and principles of 

international law. In connection with the settlement of the conflict, 

international organizations have passed numerous decisions and 

resolutions based on the norms and principles of international law", 

the diplomat noted. 

Touching upon the issue of status of Nagorno Karabakh the Azerbaijani 

Foreign Minister cited Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who once 

again clarified the issue of the status of Nagorno- Karabakh. "The 

president stated that there can be no compromise on Azerbaijan's 

territorial integrity, however, a compromise is possible on matters 

of local self-government of Nagorno-Karabakh. If we agree, 

Nagorno-Karabakh can become an autonomous republic in the future", he 

 stated.  

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a conference in Moscow 

on January 17 that the conflict over Karabakh is no longer anything 

abstract or domestic affair of Azerbaijan. The Russian minister 

recalled that that there are several tools for the Karabakh conflict 

settlement, first of all, the decisions taken at the UN Security 

Council in the full swing of the conflict and demanded ceasefire.  

"Since then the demand that the troops should be withdrawn from the 

occupied territories, but within ruling out any military scenario and 

within determining the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh has been 

relevant," Lavrov said, adding that this is fixed in the numerous 

decisions of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as in the statements and 

documents adopted and signed by the Presidents of Armenia and 

Azerbaijan.