YEREVAN. – It is easier to solve political issues when people live as normal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated this at Thursday’s joint news conference with his Armenian counterpart, in Yerevan, and answering the question on unblocking transport and economic communications in South Caucasus.

"The peace process, which began on November 9 with the aim of ending the [recent] war [in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh)] and passing to peacekeeping operation and unblocking all economic and transport communications, has been going on for almost half a year; that is why talking about ‘passing to a peace process’ is a distortion of reality.

You mentioned a tripartite group, and my [Armenian] colleague talked about it. It deals with the resolution of issues that are directly related to the peace process.

When people are freed from the blockade and embargo, then they will move on to reap the benefits of this region with strategic, geopolitical, and geoeconomic importance.

Through our efforts, a ceasefire was established and a [Russian] peacekeeping contingent was deployed, as agreed by the Presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan, and the Prime Minister of Armenia.

And I'm convinced that when people start to feel the benefits of a peaceful life, they will start to take a different approach to the issues that some of our partners are now trying to bring to the fore.

There is no need to politicize the process now; it is quite complicated. Those who try to leave these issues to later and deal with political issues first, in my opinion, turn the whole process from head to toe.

It is easier to resolve political issues when people live as normal, on a land where both Azerbaijanis and Armenians have lived side by side for many decades and centuries," said the Russian FM.