MOSCOW (Alliance News) – Russia’s leadership is making great efforts to resolve a territorial dispute between Armenia and its neighbour Azerbaijan following a recent surge in fighting between those former Soviet states, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
“We expect that Russia’s intense efforts will contribute to a stable ceasefire regime and the resumption of the negotiating process toward the peaceful settlement of the conflict,” ministry spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.
Russia’s president and prime minister have been in close contact with their Armenian and Azeri counterparts, Zakharova told reporters.
Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov was set to travel to Azerbaijan on Wednesday and then meet with his Armenian counterpart on Friday in Moscow, Zakharova said.
Russian Prime Minister
Dmitry Medvedev will visit Armenia on Thursday and Azerbaijan on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported.
Fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces erupted at the weekend over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the South Caucasus Mountains.
Nagorno-Karabakh has a mostly
Christian Armenian population but comprises about 4,500 square kilometers within predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan.
There has been sporadic fighting over the region for decades, but the recent violence has been the worst since a 1994 ceasefire ended a six-year war over the territory.
“Around 150,000 people live in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and are at risk of forced displacement should the hostilities intensify resulting in humanitarian needs,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement Monday.
Russia helped broker a new ceasefire on Tuesday, and Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement the following day that “the situation along the front line remains tense but stable.”
The eruption of violence happened amid wider regional tensions.
Armenia is in a military alliance with Russia, while Azerbaijan enjoys close ties with Turkey. Relations between Russia and Turkey are currently tense as they back opposing sides in the Syrian civil war.
Category: Daily Witness, National
