Image by Олег Токарев
The Kremlin has invited diplomats from both sides in the conflict in the Southern Caucasus to meet in Moscow today in an attempt to seal a truce in fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be involved in the scheduled meetings, reported Russian state news agency TASS.
“No, at the present moment the work is expected precisely at the level of foreign ministers,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to the question whether the top diplomats will meet with the Russian leader.
The meeting is scheduled for 15:00 Moscow time, Peskov informed, without specifying the agenda. “Let us not get ahead of ourselves, let’s wait for the completion of these contacts,” he said. Commenting the Agence France-Presse publication that the sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may sign an armistice as early as Friday or Saturday, the spokesman stated that he “cannot say anything about this yet.”
He noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has done vast and intense work with his counterparts from Baku and Yerevan.” The spokesman noted that this work resulted in Putin’s statement, in which he called on the sides to cease hostilities in order to exchange the prisoners of war and take away the bodies of the fallen.
“Both sides responded, the foreign ministers are on their way to Moscow, and today they will begin their work with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. We expect this meeting to begin at 15:00 [Moscow time],” Peskov said.
In other news, Armenia’s Human Right Defender Arman Tatoyan called for international action to end the ‘humanitarian disaster’ in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“It is time to act through real steps rather formal calls or nice speeches at conferences. An immediate end has to be put to this ongoing humanitarian disaster, mass destructions and casualties,” the Ombudsman says.
“Every minute and every second counts. I join the campaign initiated by my colleague in Artsakh, Mr. Artak Beglaryan, the Human Rights Defender,” he said.
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