Photo: Under Azerbaijani Pressure, Russia's Ministry of Defense No Longer Marks the Former Borders of Nagorno-Karabakh on Its Map, Says Stepan Safaryan

The president of the Parliament, Stepan Safaryan, wrote on his Facebook page: "Under Azerbaijan's pressure, the map of Artsakh published on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense no longer marks the former borders of Nagorno-Karabakh, regardless of which part is Armenian and which part is under Azerbaijani occupation... One of the maps is dated September 20, and the other September 24.

The fact itself does not indicate anything universally significant or poses a greater disaster than what we have experienced or the threats we still face. What is important is something else: Russia is not only in this specific case a country ensuring peacekeeping in the Artsakh region but also a co-chairing country of the Minsk Group, and among the three co-chairs, the issues outlined in the Madrid package and all previous variations have been established at least by consensus, where the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh is considered a separate entity, while the liberated territories are another entity that remains distinct.

I hope this will not be allowed, and we will not let the co-chairs of the Minsk Group gradually retreat from the elements established in their own package. In this regard, the issue should/can be discussed within the Armenian-Russian agenda in this context."