NKR PRESIDENT, “FORMATION OF THE INDEPENDENT ARTSAKH STATE FULLY CORRESPONDS TO THE PRINCIPLES AND NORMS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW”

Politics, Daily news | | March 10, 2011 13:59
President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh) Bako Sahakian, who is on a working visit to Paris, made a speech at the conference called ’17 years after the establishment of the 1994 cease-fire: what has Nagorno Karabakh achieved today?, which took place at the Institute for International Relations and Strategic Researches.
According to the Central Information Department of the NKR President’s Office, Bako Sahakian introduced the pre-history of the Karabakh issue, the processes of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement and state building in Artsakh, as well as the issues of the NKR international recognition and its foreign policy.
Speaking of the issue’s pre-history, Bako Sahakian noted that Artsakh had been one of the provinces of historical Armenia and had always played an important role in the history of the Armenian people, had been the last fragment of the independent Armenian statehood and the epicenter of the national-liberation struggle for a long time.
The President called the year of 1918 the start-point of the Karabakh issue when, under the interference of Ottoman Turkey, a state called ‘Azerbaijan’ was created in Transcaucasia, which, from the first day of its creation, started raising territorial claims to all the neighboring states, with the aim of forming land frontiers with the Ottoman Empire and creating a Pan-Turkic power. Bako Sahakian emphasized that the resolution on forced accession of Artsakh to Soviet Azerbaijan, which was adopted by the Caucasus Bureau of the Bolshevik Party, was aimed at spreading Bolshevism in the East.
Touching upon the conflict settlement, the head of state emphasized that official Stepanakert was supporter of exclusively peaceful means and a direct dialogue in resolving all the issues with Azerbaijan, noting that it didn’t mean at all that Artsakh wasn’t ready for defending its independence and security, if necessary. The President excluded even slight weakening of Artsakh’s independence and security, which are the exclusive values for the NKR people. Bako Sahakian called the destructive position of Azerbaijan and its radical anti-Armenian policy the greatest obstacle in the negotiation process, emphasizing that while coming to negotiations, one should realize that returning to the past was impossible and the approaches based on preconditions were hopeless.
The President emphasized that the formation of the independent Artsakh state, based on the principles of independence, sovereignty, and democracy, fully corresponded to the fundamental principles and norms of international law.
“The will of the Artsakh people, its intellectual potential, optimism, and diligence, its strong and efficient army, which is the basic guarantee of the state’s security, as well as the permanent assistance of the Republic of Armenia and Diaspora are the guarantee of all the achievements of the NKR”, said Bako Sahakian.
Speaking of the NKR international recognition, the head of state noted, “It can be supposed that our Republic will gain its international recognition after the conflict settlement. But, it can be also supposed that the conflict will be resolved after the international recognition of Artsakh”. According to him, the settlement of similar conflicts for the last 2 or 3 years has run just on this scenario, the bright examples of which are Kosovo, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and South Sudan.
The President emphasized that the NKR had deserved the right to be a full-fledged member of the international community, from the political, legal, and moral viewpoints.
“For the twenty years of existence of the Republic of Artsakh, we have managed to build a democratic and firmly developing state, representing no threat to anybody. And this kind of state cannot but be recognized”, he concluded.
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