Foreign Minister Says Armenia Willing to Return NK Surrounding Territories to Azerbaijan

In his speech at the Armenia-Diaspora Sixth Pan-Armenian Forum on Monday, Armenian foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan touched upon the issue of returning the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

“I am talking about those territories the return of which will not cause any damage to the settlement of the conflict or security system and will not put the final resolution of the issue in jeopardy,” Nalbandyan explained.

The foreign minister also spoke about the other elements of the settlement; "The co-chairs say that the population of Nagorno-Karabakh must determine their own future by free will, which should have international legal force for all. Before the organization of this expression of will, Nagorno-Karabakh should have an interim status, which also entails a final status. Many countries that have exercised their right to self-determination have also passed through interim and temporary stages. This interim status should be recognized by the international community, according to a corresponding decision by, say, the UN Security Council.”

Touching upon the security guarantees for Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian foreign minister said that these should be multi-level guarantees. “What do the co-chairs say? They say that Karabakh needs multi-level international security guarantees for the resolution of the NK conflict. “Multi-level” does not just mean multinational peacekeeping forces around Karabakh or security guarantees through a corresponding Security Council resolution; it also means that, for example, Armenia should be recognized as a guarantor of Karabakh's security. The Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh should also be a guarantor of this security.”

Without these security guarantees, according to Nalbandyan, he settlement of the Karabakh issue would be impossible.