During the press conference held today, December 23, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, very accurately noticed that the Karabakh problem was left as a legacy of the Soviet Union. Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"As for the request of the Azerbaijani side to visit the Kashani mine, the reality is that after blocking the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia for the first time on December 3, Azerbaijan, through Russian peacekeepers, forwarded written proposals to the authorities of Artsakh, which have very little to do with environmental issues and were unacceptable for Artsakh.

Despite this, the Artsakh side showed a constructive approach, conveying to the Azerbaijani side through the peacekeepers the conditions under which they would be ready to allow environmentalists to visit the mine.

Azerbaijan did not keep the agreements, which is why they did not enter the mine. After that, they started a long-term blockade of the road, not only causing severe humanitarian problems for the 120 thousand population of Artsakh but also grossly violating many norms of international law and the provisions of the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020.

During today's meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan, the issue of the importance of maintaining the points of the tripartite declaration was also discussed.

"However, despite the violations of the Azerbaijani side, the Artsakh authorities declare today that they are constructively disposed and are ready to engage in the discussions of any issue related to Artsakh as a full-fledged negotiating party," wrote Harutyunyan.