YURI MERZLYAKOV: I HAVE STATED IN BAKU THAT KARABAKH WAS PART OF AZERI SSR AND NOT OF AZERBAIJAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.06.2007 20:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "From the legal viewpoint the Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Region (NKAR) was a part of the Azerbaijani SSR. Now
Nagorno Karabakh is an unrecognized state and the issue of its
borders and who belongs it to lies in the sphere of international
law," OSCE Minsk Group Russian Co-Chair on the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement Yuri Merzlyakov stated to a press conference in
Yerevan. He said, after the collapse of the USSR Karabakh turned into
a subject from the object of international law. "That’s why the issue
of who it belongs to is so painful. At the press conference in Baku
I underlined that Nagorno Karabakh was a part of Azerbaijani SSR and
not of Azerbaijan," he added. At the same time the Russian mediator
noted that OSCE MG recognizes the principle of territorial integrity
of states. "If not this, can you image what would happen in the whole
world? I perfectly know that till 1917 Nagorno Karabakh was a part
of the Russian Empire. The history is necessary in order to settle
conflicts, but it is necessary to proceed from international law,"
Merzlyakov underscored.