KARABAKH MP URGES AZERBAIJAN TO RECOGNIZE KARABAKH’S INDEPENDENCE
ArmInfo News Agency (in Russian)
Aug 26 2008
Armenia
Stepanakert, 26 August: "The fact that the parliament of a powerful
country, the Russian Federation, is recommending the country’s
leadership to recognize the independence of unrecognized nations –
in particular, South Ossetia and Abkhazia – means that a new era is
coming in the world politics, even though this move could be considered
Russia’s response to the West’s recognition of Kosovo without taking
Russia’s position into account.
"But this makes no difference now. The fact is that certain countries,
the USA and Russia in particular, consider it possible to recognize
nations that had been ignored by the international community. This,
of course, opens new opportunities for those nations, including the
Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR], but I don’t wish to draw parallels
between the situations in South Osetia and Nagornyy Karabakh," Vahram
Atanesyan, chairman of the foreign relations committee of the NKR
National Assembly, has told Arminfo. He was commenting on the Russian
Duma appeal to Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev to recognize South
Ossetia’s and Abkhazia’s independence.
He said that "it is desirable that taking into consideration the
processes going on in the modern world, the Azerbaijani leadership
make a fair and smart decision on recognizing Nagornyy Karabakh
independence and establishing direct ties with the NKR to settle the
issues that both sides are interested in".
"This would be the best option. I hope that the current processes would
lead to that and I think that we should not speed up the processes
in any direction. It should be realized that the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict settlement talks are under way and some possibilities are
seen, and I think that in the light of the recent events, those
possibilities would be made more concrete," Atanesyan concluded.