President: it’s naive to expect Artsakh people to renounce independence

 May 16, 2011 - 10:20 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict can be resolved through a compromise only.

“We have been trying to find compromises during all these years. There is a red line: the people of Karabakh should decide on their own destiny and have all the possibility to safely develop on their historical motherland,” Sargsyan said in an interview as part of RIA Novosti, Moskovskie Novosti paper and Russian in Global Politics magazine project dated to the 20th anniversary of the USSR collapse.

Sargsyan reminded that the OSCE Minsk Group dealing with the conflict offered a document conditionally called the Madrid Principles.

“We clearly understand what these three principles mean. Azerbaijanis also said “yes” after long consideration, but for some reason they interpret the principles in their own way. Up to date, Azerbaijan has been threatening a new war, what runs counter to the first principle, non-use of force. The principle of territorial integrity is clear for both us and them, though there is an impression that they have elevated it to an absolute dogma out of the context of international law. Moreover, they perceive the right of nations to self-determination only as part of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. There is no self-determination of the kind. Thus, it will be too difficult to achieve progress in talks, unless Azerbaijan conceives the essence of the principle of nations’ right to self-determination. Karabakh has defended its independence in a bloody and cruel war and it is naive to expect these people to renounce their victory,” said Sargsyan.

Asked whether the establishment of two new states in South Caucasus recently will have an impact on the Karabakh conflict settlement, Mr. Sargsyan noted that the Karabakh conflict “differs from all similar problems.”

He added that all conflicts are peculiar, each of them having its reasons, consequences and dynamics of development.