YEREVAN. – Such overt expression by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and regarding the Karabakh conflict, was due to an irrelevant question posed by an Azerbaijani journalist. 

Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, Shavarsh Kocharyan, told the above-said to reporters, after Thursday’s Cabinet session.

He noted that although senior officials of the intermediary countries (Russia, US, and France) in the Karabakh peace process are usually discreet in their respective statements, in response to such an impudent question, however, Lavrov said what was apparent before as well, but they were not speaking so openly about it.

“And that’s why it should not be believed that the position of the OSCE [i.e. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Minsk Group co-chairs [regarding the Karabakh conflict] has somehow changed; simply, it was voiced completely,” added the Armenian deputy FM. “Nonetheless, we have to accept that the Minsk Group puts parity between Yerevan and Baku, just like before, which generates the unbridled actions by the latter.” 

At his 2016 year-end press conference on Tuesday, and responding to a query posed by an Azerbaijani reporter, Russian FM Lavrov had stated that the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict is not an internal matter of Azerbaijan.