Nagorno-Karabakh president says no return to past status

YEREVAN, May 19. / ARKA /. Nagorno-Karabakh president Bako Sahakyan denied any possibility for returning to what he described as ‘the past in what is related to Karabakh's status and its borders,’ during a meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Stepanakert.

In a speech delivered on May 7 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,  titled “Nagorno-Karabakh: The Keys to a Settlement”,  the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick,  outlined what he indicated was the US policy towards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 

The six-point proposed settlement would begin with a gradual Armenian-withdrawal from districts surrounding Karabakh, which would remain connected to Armenia through an overland Lachin corridor. The  Karabakh’s final status would eventually be determined through a “mutually agreed and legally binding expression of will,” presumably a referendum in Karabakh.

Also internally displaced persons and refuges must be able to return back to their original place of residence and a peacekeeping operation must be put in place as a form of international security guarantee.

"Independence and freedom are exceptional values for Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and a return to the past, both in terms of its status and boundaries is impossible," Sahakyan was quoted as saying by his press office.

It said the parties looked into the situation on the line of contact and regional processes. Sahakyan was said to have stressed that the official Stepanakert is committed to a peaceful settlement of the conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Sahakyan congratulated also the new French co-chair Pierre Andrieu,who has replaced Jacques Faure. 

The meeting was attended by Nagorno-Karabakh foreign minister Karen Mirzoyan and other officials. -0-