Russia did not define its stand on Karabah

Yury Merzlyakov of Russia, a new co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the aim of which is to negotiate a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabah conflict, refused to say unambiguously whether the principle of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should, in his opinion, serve as a basis for the settlement of this dispute. Agency's correspondent interviewed Merzlyakov on September 3 on his arrival at Baku airport.

On September 1, Yury Merzlyakov superseded Nikolay Gribkov as a Minsk Group co-chair. The latter had held this post for the last five years. Gribkov told correspondent that his replacement was a matter of rotation, adding that other co-chairmen of the Minsk Group (the United States and France) had replaced their representatives several times in the past years.

Merzlyakov said yesterday that his visit was a fact-finding one. To a question on the basis of the conflict settlement, Merzlyakov replied that he would stick to the position of Russian president Vladimir Putin who believes there should be no winners and losers in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict.

In 1988 the leadership of the Nagorno-Karabah autonomous region populated mainly by ethnic Armenians took a decision to break away from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan and become a part of Armenia. In retaliation, official Baku stripped the region of its autonomy. War broke out. In January 1992, the Nagorno-Karabah region declared its independence and self-proclaimed itself the Nagorno-Karabah Republic (NKR). As a result of the Armenian-Azerbaijan armed conflict in 1992-1994, Armenian forces occupied the NKR territory. The active phase of the conflict ended in a May 1994 truce.