Khristenko: Nagorno Karabakh may be eligible to join Customs Union only after settlement of conflict with Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, November 7. /ARKA/. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic may be eligible to join the Customs Union only after settlement of Karabakh conflict and determination of its status, Viktor Khristenko, head of the Eurasian Economic Commission, said Thursday as met with the Yerevan State University’s professors and students.

Along with that, Khristenko stressed that the conflict can’t bar Armenia from joining the Customs Union, and added that membership would even improve things over Nagorno Karabakh.   

Khristenko also turned to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s recent remark.

The latter said at his meeting with representatives of CIS countries that Azerbaijani authorities’ opinion should be taken into account before accepting Armenia into the Customs Union, since there are many unsolved problems between the two countries.  

Khristenko said that Lukashenko has no right to comment on a statement of the sovereign country president and added that only consent of members of the Customs Union is needed to accept a candidate. 

In early September, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, made a joint statement, according to which Armenia has decided to join the Customs Union and to take part in formation of the Eurasian Union in the future. 

Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan. 

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.

Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes.  

On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations.

Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. -0---