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 [Karabakh’s] 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.