ANY ATTEMPTS TO RETURN NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC TO PAST FRAUGHT WITH NEW ESCALATION OF CONFLICT

Noyan Tapan
July 17, 2009

STEPANAKERT, JULY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Due to the recent developments
around the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement, the NKR Ministry
of Foreign Affairs made a statement on July 15, which read:

"The NKR stance on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement
is stable. It is impossible to achieve the conflict settlement,
ignoring the existing reality. Any attempts to return the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic to the past are not only counterproductive, but
are also fraught with new escalation of the conflict. Real progress
at the negotiations is possible only under the Karabakh party’s
equal participation in all the stages of the negotiation process. No
agreement regarding the interests, fate, and future of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic can be adopted without the participation of its
people and leadership, which bears the principal responsibility for it.

We hope that all the actors interested in the peaceful settlement
will prevent any violation of the status quo in the region caused by
the intensification of the negotiation process on the basis of the
current settlement wording.

Proceeding from the above mentioned, we consider it required to
reset the distorted negotiation process, to return the NKR to the
negotiation table as an equal party to the negotiation process,
and to transform the basic principles of the settlement."