The Russian leadership is making significant efforts to restore the ceasefire regime in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a press briefing. "Within a few hours Sergey Lavrov will travel to Baku. Taking the recent developments into account, his visit is particularly relevant," she said.
"As you know, the Russian leadership is making significant efforts to normalize the situation in the conflict zone. The Russian President has held telephone conversations with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The chairman of the Russian government will visit Yerevan and Baku in the coming days. Sergei Lavrov will visit Baku to take part in a tripartite Russian-Azerbaijani-Iranian meeting. Certainly, there will be a bilateral dialogue with his colleague, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan," the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza cited Maria Zakharova as saying.
"I also would like to say that as part of the efforts to calm the situation and return it to a peaceful course Sergei Lavrov's meeting with the Armenian Foreign Minister is also scheduled on April 8 on the sidelines of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow. We hope that these intensive efforts of the Russian side will contribute to the restoration of a cease-fire and the resumption of the negotiating process on a peaceful settlement of the conflict," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stressed.
Zakharova added that Sergei Lavrov will visit Yerevan on April 21-22.
Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
