“Final decision on Karabakh conflict settlement and elaboration of the final document is impossible without accounting for the Karabakhi people’s opinion, for me personally, this is obvious,” Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said at the Jan. 14 press conference in Yerevan. He also underlined that Russia has neither initiated nor will any steps conflicting with the interests of any side to the Karabakh conflict.

RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian refuted the common opinion that Karabakh peace talks entered idle phase. “On the contrary, they are intensive and meetings between Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents in 2009 prove that. If the momentum maintains this year, it will impact positively the peace process. Certain slack is registered in negotiations entailed by Christmas holidays,” Minister stated.

He restated that Armenian side stands for peaceful solution to Karabakh conflict only. “Even at the recent OSCE ministerial council in Athens, the decision on non-hostile settlement to Karabakh conflict was made, and Azerbaijan was among the countries backing this initiative,” Nalbandian added.

Russian FM shared opinion of his Armenian counterpart that Karabakh conflict talks progress intensively. “And definitely, there is no stagnation in the talks,” he concluded.

A.G.