YEREVAN, May 22. /ARKA/. The official Spepanakert should be substantially involved in the negotiation on Karabakh conflict settlement, Tigran Balayan, the Armenian foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said recently at a news conference in Stepanakert that the Karabakh conflict can’t be solved without direct involvement of Artsakh (Karabakh) in the negotiation process and that only Artsakh authorities have a right to speak on behalf of it. 

Balayan said that Armenia doesn’t refuse negotiation, but Azerbaijan should understand that it is impossible to achieve settlement without participation of Karabakh. 

In his words, the Armenian foreign ministry has said this also before. 

“Now things are changed and a more active involvement of Artsakh in the talks is necessary today,” he said. 

He said that the cease-fire agreement had been achieved in 1994 between Karabakh and Azerbaijan.  
Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan. 
Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.

Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes.  

On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations.

Тalks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. -0—-