FORMER MINISTER URGES ARMENIA TO RECOGNIZE KARABAKH’S INDEPENDENCE

ArmInfo News Agency (in Russian)
Aug 25 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 25 August: The time has come to recognize the independence
of the [Azerbaijani breakaway] Nagornyy Karabakh republic (NKR)
by Armenia, the former foreign minister of the NKR, Arman Melikyan,
has told our correspondent.

"I think that the recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia by Russia can be just another stroke on the long path
to the independence that Nagornyy Karabakh took long ago," he said
while commenting on a statement made by the Russian Federation Council
[upper house of parliament] today.

Melikyan believes that Armenia must unilaterally recognize the
sovereignty of Nagornyy Karabakh, since the republic is considerably
ahead of its neighbours in the region in terms of development of
democracy. "I think Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev will also put
his signature under the statement by the senators of the Federation
Council, because there are all preconditions for this, the main of
which is the world order that is changing by the hour in conditions
of equal confrontation between the USA and Russia," Melikyan said.