Lavrov to bring proposals on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement to Yerevan - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will bring certain proposals on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement to Armenia on April 21-22, Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday. "Sergey Lavrov never comes with empty hands," Zakharova said in response to a question on whether the foreign minister will present a plan on resolving the Karabakh conflict during his visit to Yerevan. "I think it is not correct to talk about what it will be - a plan, program, project, document. We are talking about concrete proposals, discussion of different ideas in the framework of (Nagorno-Karabakh) settlement," she added. Russia’s role as a mediator is to talk to all sides, "discuss possibilities, listen to their concerns, propose different options," Zakharova said. 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. On April 5 Azerbaijan’s Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Nadjmeddin Sadykov and his Armenian counterpart Col. Gen. Yury Khachaturov in Moscow with Russia’s mediation. At the talks the sides reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities at the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. On the same day, the defense ministries of the two countries announced that the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would start at 12am local time. The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians, broke out in the late 1980s. 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. Read more