Uruguay may be the first to recognize Karabakh- Uruguay Deputy

YEREVAN, November 14. /ARKA/. Uruguay may be the first country to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s independence, a co-chair of Armenian-Uruguayan parliamentary friendship group, Uruguay parliament foreign relations committee member Ruben Martinez Huelmo said Tuesday in Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert. 

In response to a journalist’s question about whether Uruguay, which was the first to recognize the Armenian genocide, can now be the first state to recognize the independence of NKR, Mr. Huelmo said, “I can honestly say, theoretically, yes. But this is a political process and it must develop step by step” Yerevan-based Yerkir Media channel reported. 

He noted that it is not something adventurous to visit Artsakh (Armenian name for Karabakh) and is just a mere step. 

“We are the friends of the Armenian nation,” Mr. Huelmo said following the meeting of NKR President Bako Sahakyan with the members of House of Representatives of Uruguay headed by Jorge Orrico. 

The sides discussed the issues related to bi-lateral relations development. 

Mr. Sahakyan highly commended Uruguay’s contribution to the international recognition of the Armenian genocide, the balanced policy of this state towards Artsakh’s recognition and settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict. 

The parties also highlighted the importance of deepening the bilateral relations and undertaking all the necessary efforts in this direction. Meetings of Uruguay’s delegation will be held in Karabakh’s parliament on Wednesday. 

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 after the predominantly Armenian-populated Karabakh declared about secession from Azerbaijan. 

As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the Karabakh’s government, the Armenian majority voted in 1991, December 10, to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Full-scale fighting, initiated by Azerbaijan, erupted in the late winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including Europe's OSCE’s failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. 

In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control seven regions beyond the administrative borders of Nagorno-Karabakh. Almost 1 million people on both sides have been displaced as a result of the conflict. A Russian- -brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan. -0-