YEREVAN. Jan 28 (Interfax) - A detailed project aimed to unblock transport communications in Nagorno-Karabakh has yet to be prepared, and Armenia is currently focused on the return of prisoners from Azerbaijan, Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian said on Thursday.
"There is no concrete project regarding communications just yet," Aivazian told reporters, as he was visiting the Yerablur military cemetery together with other top-ranking Armenian military-political officials on Thursday on the occasion of Armenia's Army Day.
Armenia was not engaged in negotiations with Turkey on unblocking the Kars-Gyumri railroad line, he added.
Armenia hopes that Azerbaijan realizes the importance of the return of Armenian prisoners who were taken as a result of the Karabakh armed conflict of fall 2020, he said.
"The Karabakh problem has not been resolved. The return of Armenian prisoners from Azerbaijan is a key outstanding issue. It is necessary to build confidence in order to speak about stability and peace in the region, and this can be done by solving important problems, first and foremost the release of prisoners. Azerbaijan has to understand that this is a humanitarian matter," he said.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are due to visit Yerevan shortly, he said.
On Wednesday, Moscow reaffirmed plans to hold the first meeting of the trilateral group of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, which is tasked with unblocking economic and transport communications in Nagorno-Karabakh and the South Caucasus, on January 30.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on January 11, following negotiations with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, that the sides had signed a statement on the establishment of a trilateral group to promote the development of economic relations and infrastructure projects in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The need to unblock economic and transport communications in the region was declared in the final provision of the trilateral statement on the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was adopted on November 9, 2020.