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Sergei Lavrov: â€œRussiaâ€™s participation in the Turkish-Armenian normalization process was limited to its participation in the ceremony of signing the protocols onlyâ€

22 January 2010 11:58 (UTC +04:00)

Moscow. Roman Aghayev â€“ APA. â€œI wouldnâ€™t like to comment on the situation around the Turkish-Armenian protocols because this issue is directly related to Armenia and Turkey and the process began between them without any outside interferenceâ€, said Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov answering the question of APAâ€™s correspondent at the press conference in Moscow.

Lavrov said Russiaâ€™s participation in this process was limited to its joining the signing ceremony in Zurich at the request of the sides. â€œWe participated together with our colleagues from the European Union, US, France and the Council of Europe in the signing ceremony. We support the normalization of relations between the two countries, but not artificial prolongation of any process. We would like to see Turkey and Armenia to normalize their relations, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to be resolved within the interests of both Azerbaijani and Armenian people. Both issues are very complicated. Therefore the sides in the Turkish-Armenian normalization process and in the process of solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict must decide after full consideration and base on the results achieved so far. Russia is ready to help them, but not everything depends on us. Main duties in both Turkish-Armenian normalization and Nagorno Karabakh solution fall on the direct participants of the processesâ€.