Armenia’s president unveils conditions which would make Armenian side agree to concessions in Karabakh issue
Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan has announced today the conditions which would make the Armenian side agree to concessions in the Karabakh issue as he met with ambassadors of the OSCE member-states in Armenia.
"The Armenian side and this is well known to the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the ambassadors sitting here has never rejected logical concessions aimed at resolving the conflict. However, it makes sense to talk about them only when the very cause of the conflict is eliminated and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will be free from the threat of re-colonization," the president said.
"No one can force a people to live in a state, which does not reflect its aspirations and values," he stressed.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1998 February when the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region announced its independence from Azerbaijan. In September 1991, the region declared itself the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and, over the course of the enduring conflict, Azerbaijan subsequently lost control of the region.
In 1994, a Russian-brokered cease-fire was signed and peace talks have been held since, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
On April 2 Azerbaijan resorted to an "unprecedented provocation along the entire perimeter of the contact line" with Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the NKR Defense Army, during the three-day fighting they have destroyed 2 helicopters, 20 tanks, one missile system Grad, heavy flame-throwing systems TOS-1, 5 armored vehicles, including 1 infantry fighting vehicle, 1 unit of engineering machinery and 6 Azerbaijani drones killing also over 200 Azeri soldiers. The Armenian side lost one tank, 18 people were killed, and about 40 wounded. -0-