Your trusted source

"We proceed from the fact that at a certain stage Karabakh must return into the process because after all we deal with the fate of the people who live here. We believe that after the completion of the fundamental principles, when it becomes clear how to proceed at that very stage, it will be possible to discuss this issue," stated the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov yesterday at a briefing in Stepanakert answering the question on participation of NKR in the negotiation process on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, the Karabakh-open.info reported.

As the Karabakh-open.info reports, recently, when touching the conflict settlement issue, the NKR President Bako Sahakyan stated that Karabakh is not willing to enter into negotiation process when some solutions are already submitted, as NKR should be involved in the negotiation process initially. To this reminder of journalists Igor Popov replied, "I would like to clarify that our visits to Nagorno-Karabakh, meetings with Bako Sahakyan are also involvement of Karabakh into discussions. We do not just meet here and talking about agriculture or other problems. We also discuss substantive issues that are touched upon during the meeting of the co-chairs. "

Answering the question on how it is possible to achieve efficiency in the ceasefire regime, the Russian co-chair noted that they have also discussed the situation at the front line. "Unfortunately, not everything is as good as we would like it to be. People are killed. Despite the fact that the number of deaths has decreased significantly, however, each death is a great loss and pain. Tomorrow, in the Ministry of Defense, we plan to discuss the existing situation in the contact line, as well as the steps that can stabilize the situation on the border," Igor Popov stated.

Yesterday the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick (USA) and Jacques Faure (France) visited Stepanakert, where they had a two-hour conversation with the NKR President Bako Sahakyan.