Merkel and Aliyev stress Russia's role in Karabakh settlement

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that Russia will play a key role in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the head of the European bureau of 'Vestnik Kavkaza', Orhan Sattarov, reports.

"We will use our contacts to support the Russian government, as well as the American and the French ones — co-chairs of the Minsk group — in solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Merkel said.

Ilham Aliyev said that he considers Russia as a strategic partner. "Azerbaijan and Russia have also good relations in the fields of security, transport and trade," he pointed out

"Russian arms supplies to Armenia don’t cause allergies in Azerbaijan, while Russian arms sales to Azerbaijan causes allergies in Armenia. But, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan pays money for the acquisition of weapons. Azerbaijan buys weapons not only from Russia, but also from Turkey, Israel, Belarus and Iran. We should provide our armed forces with sophisticated weapons as a state that is suffering from occupation and located in complicated geopolitical configuration," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Russia is one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, which is responsible for resolving the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. We believe that Russia is playing a very positive role and we hope that  Russia, France and the United States, using its full potential, will persuade Armenia to withdraw its forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories," the president of Azerbaijan concluded.