Recognizing Karabakh’s Independence Left to the Mercy of Fate: MP

Regretfully, the parliamentary majority has taken it upon itself the audacity to overthrow the bill to recognize Karabakh’s independence, Heritage Party MP Stepan Safaryan told Epress.am today.

Recall that the bill to recognize the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR) was not approved by Armenia’s National Assembly today. The majority of parliamentarians voted down the bill, while only 13 members of the Heritage Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) voted in favor of the bill.

The failure to pass the bill, according to Safaryan, means that the issue of Artsakh’s (NKR) independence is not being discussed in the Republic of Armenia parliament. 

“It will be discussed in L’Aquila, and in the best case scenario, in Astana, but against our interests,” he said. 

The failure to approve the bill and all its consequences, according to the MP, fall on the ruling authorities.

“Recognizing Karabakh’s independence is left to the mercy of fate,” he concluded.

Note that the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan after a bloody war in the 1990s and is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. Today it exists as a de-facto independent state under an uneasy ceasefire, and OSCE-brokered efforts to resolve its status have so far been unsuccessful.