Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at the press conference in Baku, answered a question from the corespondent of Vestnik Kavkaza Orkhan Yelchuyev about the visit of Azerbaijani journalists to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and Yerevan, as well as of Armenian journalists - to Baku, as well as about the importance of direct negotiations between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Karabakh.
First of all, the minister said that Russia was one of the authors of the initiative on an exchange of visits by journalists. "At the beginning of the year, after the Vienna summit, the meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia was held with the participation of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. An unofficial, but very specific paper was agreed upon then, we all spoke out in favor of establishing humanitarian exchanges between the parties. This included solutions to issues related to dead and detained people, exchanges of journalists were also mentioned there," Sergei Lavrov said.
The Russian Foreign Minister stressed that the importance of such exchanges can hardly be overestimated. "I think this is very important. Any decision should be made by people who live there - in Azerbaijan, Armenia, in Karabakh. And the closer people communicate, the more objectively journalists report on what is happening on both sides the line of contact, the easier it is to find a solution, and the more stable the agreements we hope to reach are," he said.
Sergey Lavrov also supported the idea of resuming negotiations between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Karabakh. "I support the resumption of contacts between the communities, this is a very promising topic, because in the end, all the same, all people of Karabakh should determine their own future," the Russian Foreign Minister concluded.
