18.01.2001, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. “As a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Russia should keep consensus, which exists between all the countries involved in the Karabakh conflict”, said NKR Foreign Minister Naira Melkumian in the interview to “Azat Artsakh” paper.
The main idea of the consensus is that the Karabakh problem should be resolved through concessions, and the settlement variant must be acceptable for all the parties, the Minister said.
Commenting upon the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Baku, Melkumian said there were no surprises during the visit. According to her, Russia, as a country having an unresolved ethnic conflict, had to stress the supremacy of the principle of territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. At the same time, NKR Foreign Minister said, the Russian President “in some way managed to single out diplomatically the Karabakh conflict, noting that it must be resolved on the compromise bases”.
Assessing the Russian-Azeri relations, the Minister stressed that Azerbaijan must at last understand that there is no other country, a third party, which would impose on Karabakh a settlement variant, unacceptable for the people of NKR. “We must calmly take the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, for Russia has principal interests in our region, which consists not only of Armenia and NKR,” Melkumian said. She voiced confidence that in case of natural development of Russian-Azeri mutual relations, Azerbaijan will very soon understand that neither Russia nor any other country will hold talks with Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia for the achievement of the final settlement of the conflict. -0-
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