NKR FM: NKR’S STATUS DETERMINED WITHIN LEGAL FRAMES BY NATION RESIDING HERE

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
June 22, 2006

Recently the Azeri party via AR FM Elmar Mammadyarov stated readiness
to grant the highest status of autonomy adopted in the world, including
the one equal to Tatarstan’s status within RF, to Nagorno Karabakh.

In this connection Nagorno Karabakh Republic FM Georgy Petrosyan
gave commentary: "The statement, unless it is a current propaganda
ploy, means that the Azeri leadership is ready for his country’s
federalization. From this viewpoint one can express hope that the
above-mentioned status will be granted to Lezgins, Talyshes and
other nations residing in Azerbaijan. As for the NKR, with which the
Azeri leadership avoids any contacts, it should be underscored that
official Baku cannot grant any status to Nagorno Karabakh, as the
issue is out of Azerbaijan’s competence. Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s
status is determined within the legal frames by the nation residing
here. The Azeri-Karabakh conflict’s essence is that the Azeri party
proved to be unable to resolve the issues of the kind and resorted
to armed aggression.

Official Baku goes on ignoring the present realities, according to
which the NKR’s independence is the greatest value of the Republic’s
nation that has been supported at a nation-wide referendum on state
independence December 10, 1991. The NKR people not only protected
their right to be in charge of their own fate in the course of the
imposed war, but for last 15 years minimum 7 times reaffirmed its will
via democratic nation-wide Presidential and Parliamentary elections,
when the electors voted for the programs of separate candidates and
political parties that spoke up for the Republic’s state independence".