OSCE Minsk Group must 'keep working' on Karabakh peace – Russian deputy FM  

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship must continue its active mediation efforts in Karabakh (Artsakh) peace as a mission that had a vital contribution to the development of the principles essential to settling the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, a deputy foreign minister of Russia said today.

In an interview with TASS.ru, Andrey Rudenko emphasized that some of the fundament principles were enshrined also in the November 9 Moscow-brokered truce between the conflicting countries.  

“It deals also with the return of the adjacent regions to Azerbaijan, the maintenance of the [highway] corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, security, peacekeeping activities and the unblocking of all the economic and transport links across the region,” he said, reiterating also the urgent demand for reaching a comprehensive political settlement (subject to the decisions adopted in the 1994 OSCE Parliamentary Assembly).

Meantime he emphasized the strong influence enjoyed by three co-chairing states (France, US and Russia) in upon the process of resolving the status of Karabakh and developing mutually acceptable solutions. But the Russian official called for cautious policy actions to avoid unnecessary haste.

“The OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs can now step up their active work to initiate steps towards confidence-building between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. A developing dialogue in the civil society will overall enhance the situation in the region, creating preconditions for future steps on a political platform,” he added.

Asked whether Russia bewares of Turkey’s direct engagement, Rudenko cited the presence of the joint Russian-Turkish center in Aghdam as the fundamental basis for developing Moscow's partnership with Ankara.