NKR MINISTRY VOWS PROGRESS IN TALKS AFTER KARABAKH JOINS THEM

Mediamax
July 15 2009
Armenia

Yerevan, 15 July: The ministry of foreign affairs of the Nagornyy
Karabakh republic (NKR) expressed hope today 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". Mediamax reports that the statement by NKR foreign ministry
reads this.

"Due to the recent developments around the Azerbaijani-Karabakh
conflict settlement, the NKR ministry of foreign affairs considers
it essential to issue the following statement:

"The NKR stance on the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement
is stable. It is impossible to achieve the conflict settlement,
ignoring the existing reality. Any attempts to return the Nagornyy
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 Nagornyy
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 abovementioned, 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," the document reads.