Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today, at a press conference held on 1 December, that at the time of the signing of the Alma-Ata Declaration on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), “the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was unequivocally within the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR).”
As reported by Interfax-Azerbaijan, Sergei Lavrov said:
“When they — the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia — arrived in Sochi, they had brought from Prague the document in which it was stated that they wished to sign a peace treaty, guided by the UN Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration.
In the Alma-Ata Declaration on the creation of the CIS, it is clearly stated that the borders between the new states shall be based on the administrative borders of the former union republics of the USSR, and at that time the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was unequivocally part of the Azerbaijani SSR. That was confirmed by Azerbaijan, Armenia, France and Mr. Michel, without any reservations, and that resolves the question of how to approach Karabakh’s status,” said Lavrov.
“Therefore, when after signing this agreement our Armenian colleagues tell us, ‘Let Russia confirm its proposals regarding the status of Karabakh,’ you yourselves understand that this is not about conducting negotiations, but from an entirely different opera,” said the Russian minister.
“The leadership of Armenia has recently been speaking not about status, but about the need to ensure the rights of the Armenian population in Karabakh. The Azerbaijani side is ready to discuss this and to provide those rights that the other residents of Azerbaijan have,” added Lavrov.
