Many UN Member States can Serve as Precedents for Nagorno-Karabakh: Nalbandian

“The people of Nagorno-Karabakh — no less than any other nation under the sun — have a right to their own destiny,” said Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian in a televised interview with Russia Today.

The foreign minister said that Armenia never ignored and does not ignore historical facts, since they can help find a way out of existing situations. “But of course you need to look to the future, look for ways of settling the conflict, and not say that the goal is zero problems while simultaneously creating new problems.”

According to Nalbandian, every conflict has its own characteristics, roots, dynamics and formats of negotiating. “Comparing or making parallels is not always justified. But still, there might be similar elements in conflicts. For this reason I don’t think it’s right for one conflict to be directly compared to another.”

A precedent for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to the Armenian foreign minister, could be the referendum passed in southern Sudan.

“There are many precedents, they’re not lacking, it’s just that this is the latest example. Many UN member states took this same path. Nearly all of them became independent states on the basis of the right to self-determination,” said Nalbandian.

“Armenia is ready to move toward conflict settlement on the basis of the principles proposed by the [OSCE] Minsk Group; however, Azerbaijan states that it only accepts one of the three principles, and 5 out of the 6 elements, and that only after one is implemented,” he said.