BAKU, November 2. /TASS/. Russia should remain neutral in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as outlined in the mandate issued to co-chairs of the Minsk Group by the OSCE, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said Monday, the Azerbaijan State News Agency reports.
“Firstly, we did not attack Armenia. Secondly, Russia is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and it should be neutral as all co-chairs in accordance with the mandate issued for them by the OSCE,” Aliyev underscored.
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to launch consultations to determine the scope and scale of the aid that Russia can provide to Armenia to ensure its security. The Russian Foreign Minister announced that Moscow will provide all the necessary assistance to Yerevan in accordance with the treaty on friendship if clashes will move to the Armenian territory.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs – Russia, France and the United States.
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