YEREVAN, March 12. /ARKA/. The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova declined to comment on a statement made by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that Zangezur (the historical name of the southern Armenian province of Syunik) is the territory of Azerbaijan.
A journalist of the Public Television of Armenia asked Zakharova to comment on Aliyev’s statement, which he made during an online meeting of the member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization on March 5.
Zakharova was asked if she considered Aliyev’s statement about Zangezur a rude violation of international law and encroachment on the internationally recognized sovereign borders of Armenia, and whether it was a violation of the tripartite statement signed on November 9 on the unblocking of regional transport communications and routes.
“We note the generally constructive attitude demonstrated by both Baku and Yerevan within the framework of the trilateral working group chaired by the vice-premiers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Zakharova said.
Zakharova stressed that the main task of the working group is to implement the agreements reached at the highest level on unblocking all economic and transport links in the region.
“We hope that the same focus on the positive and the search for mutually acceptable points of contact will prevail both in the official comments and in Armenian and Azerbaijani mass media,” she said.
The trilateral statement, signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on November 9, 2020 to end the war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, calls for resumption of economic ties, ensuring movement of goods through the territory of Armenia to Azerbaijani exclave Nakhichevan, and, according to their another statement on January 11, 2021, to ensure a road for Armenia to Iran and Russia through Azerbaijan.
On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons.
After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the parties stopped at where they were at that time. The town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Karabakh and adjacent regions, prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons and bodies of the dead are being exchanged.–0-