MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia considers two ceasefire agreements signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1995 and 1996 as the foundation of cessation of hostilities in the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"In the context of the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian side insists that the 1994 agreement on the ceasefire and the agreement on the strengthening of the ceasefire regime in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict reached in 1995 have no time limitations and continue to form the foundation of the cessation of hostilities in the conflict zone," the ministry said in a Thursday statement.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988, when the autonomous region with a predominantly Armenian population sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. The region proclaimed independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, triggering a war that lasted until a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994.
Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said earlier on Thursday that a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is possible with the implementation of four 1993 UN Security Council resolutions calling for the withdrawal of Armenian troops from disputed areas.
Armenia argued that Azerbaijan’s statement attempts to lay blame for the April 2 escalation of violence on Yerevan, and that it threatened to further destabilize the situation in the region.
