NKR, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
April 2005

THE NKR FOREIGN MINISTER: NAGORNO KARABAKH WILL OBTAIN THE
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF ITS INDEPENDENCE

Delivering a speech at March 29-30 listenings on “The Problem of
Nagorno Karabakh. The Ways of Settlement” at the Parliament of
Armenia, the NKR Foreign Minister stated on the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic’s intention to consecutively obtain its international
recognition.

The Minister stressed the impeccability of the legal basis and the
procedure of declaring the NKR independence, on the basis of which
Stepanakert was constructing its foreign policy. At the same time
Arman Melikian noted that the NKR leadership deferred the goal of
achieving the international recognition of the NKR from the one of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. “The goal of the settlement
comes from the one of liquidation of the consequences of the war
unleashed by Azerbaijan, and can’t follow the goal of achieving the
international recognition of the NKR. We conduct this process
separately and we intend to lead it to its logic end”, he noted.
According to the NKR Foreign Minister, the Karabakh leadership found
the necessary prerequisites for the international recognition of the
NKR and aspired to create them in its practical policy for achieving
the aim.

Speaking on the current situation in the negotiation process on the
Karabakh settlement, Arman Melikian noted the presence of the
elements in it causing Stepanakert’s definite anxiety. Nagorno
Karabakh actually appeared out of the frames of the negotiation
process in the period of the so-called Paris process, when, as it was
confirmed, the parties were very close to the mutual understanding
and compromises. However, via the denial of the compromise variant,
the Azerbaijani party tried to present Armenia as an aggressor and
has conducted this policy up to this day. “It causes our anxiety. We
think it necessary to take effective steps to overpass the
Azerbaijani policy consequences which become more noticeable”,
Melikian said.

At the same time, the NKR Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that he
could not affirm that the situation developed negatively for the
international recognition of the NKR. “There are changes that can
lead to actual realization of the NKR international recognition in
future and we’ll try to quicken this process”, Melikian said. In this
connection, he noted that on March 29 at the session of the NKR
Government a package of draft laws had been discussed which were
aimed at the settlement of the activity in the foreign policy sphere.
This package includes also draft laws on the NKR joining to two
international conventions – on diplomatic relations and on consular
relations. The NKR Foreign Minister denied the outward appearance of
an unrecognized state’s joining to the international conventions by
the example of demands made by the International Committee of Red
Cross (ICRC) to Nagorno Karabakh as a state which had joined to the
Geneve conventions in early 90s. “We plan to take steps regarding a
number of other serious international documents as well. And this is
one of the serious elements of our foreign policy”, the head of the
NKR MFA said.

He considered it necessary to remind about one more important factor
which “being fundamental, for some reason came out from the
negotiation relations”. The issue regards the Armenians who once
lived in Azerbaijan. When the talk touches upon refugees, as a rule,
they usually mean Azerbaijanis displaced from Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh to Azerbaijan, and partly – the Armenians who escaped from
the NKR Shahumian, Martakert regions and other Karabakh territories,
which are fully or partly occupied by Azerbaijan. “We constantly
forget about a great number of people, who found themselves out of
the process and whose interests are not protected by anybody at the
international stage. The NKR authorities consider it their duty”, the
head of the NKR MFA stressed.

Trying to follow these people’s destiny, the Karabakh leadership held
a monitoring in one of the regions of Russia, where many Armenians
lived. According to the data received, about 45 thousand Armenians
from Azerbaijan have found refuge in that Russian region since the
beginning of the Karabakh events. Almost half of them got Russian
citizenship. A small part of them – about 1000-1500 people – became
citizens of Armenia. The rest have no citizenship yet. Melikian noted
that such was the situation only in one region of Russia. He pointed
out the necessity of consecutive dealing with this problem, like
Azerbaijan did, and the ability to present the interests of the
Armenian refugees at the international stage including the
restoration of the material and other losses suffered by them. “It’s
a very important goal at the resolution of which the law on
citizenship worked out in the NKR is directed. It is almost ready.
After the expert stage, in the nearest 10-15 days, the draft law will
be discussed”, Melikian said.

The head of the Karabakh MFA called the development of democracy and
democratic institutes in the republic the most important part of the
NKR policy. The Minister called the coming June elections to the NKR
National Assembly a regular test on this way. “We expect that
representatives of political forces of Armenia will attend the
elections as observers. Observers from other states will also be
invited but Armenia’s relation to this event is very important for
us”, the head of the NKR MFA said.

The Minister pointed out also the necessity of taking into
consideration the international situation and the development of
world processes. Melikian said that various international
organizations with the ulterior motive observed the development of
the events around Nagorno Karabakh and tryed to affect them
proceeding mainly from good intentions, though sometimes negative
influence also took place. “But that’s not the point. We must clearly
realize that we are not alone in the world, and be able to correlate
our steps with serious international interests which become apparent
today in serious changes in the world. It is both the expansion of
the Europe and the exaggeration of the idea of Great Nearest East, as
well as the processes taking place in more remote regions. If we
can’t correlate the processes taking place in our country, with the
ones which have global international implication, we can face quite
serious difficulties”, Melikian said.

Answering the questions of the listenings’ attendants, Melikian said
that the recently exaggerated idea of conducting a referendum in
Nagorno Karabakh was regarded in the NKR as a recognition of the NK
people’s decisive vote in the issue of its self-determination. At the
same time the Minister stressed the necessity of concretely defining
the region of conducting the referendum and Azerbaijan’s readiness to
admit its results. Only if these questions found their answers it
would be possible to talk about the prerequisites for conducting a
referendum, he said.

Answering the question on the current border between Nagorno Karabakh
and Azerbaijan, Arman Melikian said that the actual border of the NKR
and Azerbaijan passed along the contact-line of the NKR and
Azerbaijani armed forces.

The Minister noted that the regions of Nagorno Karabakh – Shahoumian,
Shankhor, Khanlar, etc, which were occupied by Azerbaijan, were
actively settled, and according to the present data, not only by
refugees from the territories which had passed under the control of
Nagorno Karabakh in the course of the war, but also other
Azerbaijanis. At the same time, Arman Melikian expressed his
dissatisfaction by the process of settling the territories controlled
by the Karabakh party, by Armenians. “There are definite omissions in
this process”, Melikian said.