Karabakh foreign minister thanks his Uruguayan counterpart for supporting Artsakhk's right to self-determination

YEREVAN, January 27. / ARKA /. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) foreign minister Karen Mirzoyan sent a letter to foreign minister of Uruguay Luis Almagro to thank him for his strong stance on the future of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Your efforts to ensure peace and stability in our region, based on recognition of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh (the Armenian name of Nagorno-Karabakh) are commendable encouraging us to progress on the path we have chosen - to live in peace and security in a free and democratic country," Babayan's letter says.

NKR Foreign Minister expressed confidence that the visit of NKR president Bako Sahakyan to Uruguay in 2011 and the visit of the chairman of the House of Representatives of Uruguay Jorge Omar Orrico Miralda to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2012 made a significant contribution to the strengthening of friendship between the two countries. Mirzoyan invited his Uruguayan counterpart to visit Artsakh.

After a January 4 meeting with representatives of the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay Luis Almagro asked for the international recognition of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the right of its people to self-determination. 

Almagro stressed the “need for a peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict taking particular account of the right to self-determination of the Armenian people and the principle of territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia under its borders as an independent country between May 1918 and December 1920″.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan, sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by succeeding referendum. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed.

Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year. -0-