Lavrov, Too, Knows Who Left Karabakh out of Negotiations 

“It is clear to all of us that without the consent of the people, the population of Nagorno Karabakh, no agreement can be reached. Armenia will simply not sign it. We start off from here. Speaking of Nagorno Karabkh, I want to mention what Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today at our meeting. He reminded of his public address that final agreements must take into account the interests of Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan. It is difficult to dispute this approach,” said Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia in Yerevan.

To the question what is Moscow’s attitude towards the return of Karabakh to the table of negotiations, Lavrov said: “The participants of the negotiations must be agreed and defined by the negotiators themselves. At the early stages of discussions around the resolution of the Karabakh issue and later at the early phases of negotiations, when combat was ceased, Nagorno Karabakh was a participant to the agreements reached and negotiations that were followed by the ceasefire. At some point, the authorities of Armenia, one of the former Presidents decided that the interests of Karabakh would be represented by Yerevan.” Lavrov meant former President of Nagorno Karabakh and later of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan who left Karabakh out of negotiations.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Armenia on an official visit since November 10. As part of the visit, Minister Lavrov has had closed meetings with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President Armen Sargsyan. Sergey Lavrov and the delegation headed by him were accepted by Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on November 11th. Shortly after the negotiations, Lavrov and Mnatsakanyan gave a joint press conference. The video recording of the press conference is posted below.