YEREVAN. – Zhamanak newspaper spoke with Russian diplomat, Ambassador Vladimir Kazimirov, who is the former Russian Co-Chair of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, and former head of the Russian mediation mission toward resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Nagorno-Karabakh is one of the parties to this conflict from the very beginning. The fate of Nagorno-Karabakh has become the cause for the start of the conflict. The attempts to drive Stepanakert out of the talks are doomed to failure.

“During the military operations from 1991 to [19]94, Baku had to make arrangement and sign agreement more than ten times with Stepanakert, not Yerevan, regarding the situation on the frontline. There were only three attempts to signing an agreement with Yerevan, without Stepanakert’s participation, and all these attempts have failed. Today, Baku carefully conceals this fact.

“I am convinced that it is easier to approach to the settlement [of this conflict] through excluding the use of force. This can be achieved by way of a non-use of force agreement, to which Baku does not agree in any way,” Kazimirov said, in particular.