Breakaway Karabakh wants to be involved in talks with Azerbaijan

Regnum, Moscow
21 Apr 06

The National Assembly of the unrecognized Nagornyy Karabakh republic
(NKR) has asked the OSCE to treat Karabakh as a party to the peace
talks with Azerbaijan, Regnum news agency reported on 21 April.

In a statement adopted following the hearings on the Karabakh
conflict settlement in Stepanakert, members of the Karabakh
parliament appealed “to the OSCE Ministerial Council to respect the
NKR’s full involvement in the talks for settling the conflict”. The
MPs recalled that Nagornyy Karabakh was recognized as a party to the
conflict by Armenia and Azerbaijan and by several OSCE documents,
Regnum said.

The MPs also said they believed that the international recognition of
the democratic and viable NKR would “become a factor of regional
stability and security”.

The MPs accused Azerbaijan of starting a war against Karabakh and
said that Azerbaijan should therefore bear responsibility for it.
“This country bears responsibility for the fates of hundreds of
thousands of people on both sides who became refugees and internally
displaced persons following hostilities. Azerbaijan should pay
compensation to these people, irrespective of their ethnicity, for
material and moral damage, including the loss of the motherland,” the
statement said.