Marxist Leader Proposes Karabakh’s Independence After Becoming Russian Federal Subject

Marxist Party of Armenia leader David Hakobyan proposed his own version of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, while speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.

“That version has to be as follows: Yerevan denounces in parliament the agreements in 1921 that divided Armenia [referring to the Treaty of Moscow and the Treaty of Kars] and comes out of the negotiation process, yielding its place to Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] as the principal party to the conflict and negotiator, but does not associate with it. Artsakh is thus given broad diplomatic room to maneuver,” he said.

Hakobyan noted that in this case, Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament can appeal to Russia’s State Duma with a proposal to make Karabakh a federal subject of the Russian Federation. The party leader noted that Karabakh could have the same status as Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, and Chechnya.

According to Hakobyan, this status would be an intermediary step to achieve independence. He believes that in this case, Karabakh would be able to keep the surrounding territories. “So we do not lose a single inch of land. Around the diplomatic table, historical Artsakh should be presented with its historical-geographical borders.”

In the Marxist party leader’s opinion, there’s no other way of getting rid of the “European diplomatic sharks.”