YEREVAN. - The most important elements of the Karabakh conflict settlement should be considered as a whole, the OSCE Minsk Group Russian Co-Chair Igor Popov said at a press conference held in Yerevan Saturday.

Responding to the question on the proposals available on the bargaining table, the mediator noted that the notorious “Lavrov document” doesn’t exist, as the Minister himself said.  “There are proposals of the Co-Chairs. There are several versions, but all of them are based on three principles and six elements, which the presidents of co-chairing countries have repeatedly talked about,” Popov said.

He reminded that the aforementioned three principles include the non-use of force and threat to use force, peoples’ right to self-determination and territorial integrity.

“The two key elements are the return of the territories and decision of status issues. I’ll repeat backward: decision of status issues and return of territories. These shouldn’t be put one against another. The “Lavrov document” referred exactly to them. It also includes elements related to returning the refugees, as well as the width and status of the corridor connecting the Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, and of course there should be a peacekeeping operation,” Popov noted.

In his words, the peacekeeping operation will most probably be possible at the final stage of normalization, following the signing of an agreement.