Armenia insists on Karabakh’s participation in peace process

YEREVAN, July 27. /ARKA/. Armenia always demanded and still demands that Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) takes direct part in Karabakh peace process, Armenian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shavarsh Kocharian said in his interview to Public TV of Armenia.

Declassification of Madrid Principles shows on the one hand that mediator countries’ presidents do not address the main side to the conflict – the NKR, and this gives way to concerns, the Deputy Minister said.

Madrid Principles on settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict envisage a referendum for establishing Karabakh’s status, land communication between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, provision of security guarantees and withdrawal of the troops from the territories under NKR’s control.

On the other hand Madrid document implies that the NKR is a party to the process, Kocharian said.

This means that soon Azerbaijan will have to reckon with Nagorno-Karabakh Republic if it wants to continue the negotiations, Armenian Deputy Minister said.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict started in 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh with prevailingly Armenian population declared its withdrawal from Azerbaijan.

On December 10 1991, just a couple of days before the collapse of the Soviet Union, 99.89% of Karabakh’s population voted for full independence from Azerbaijan in a referendum held in the country in the presence of international observers.

In response, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale war against Nagorno-Karabakh. Active operations were ceased on May 12 1994 by signing a cease-fire agreement that has been maintained since then. The military operations led to about 25-30,000 deaths; a million of people had to leave their homes.

Since 1992 negotiations have been held on peaceful settlement of the conflict under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the USA, Russia and France.–0—