Armenia, NKR should admeasure roles and authority in resolution of conflict with Azerbaijan

To avoid false rumors, Armenia and NKR should admeasure roles and authority in resolution of the conflict with Azerbaijan. The issues referring to the liberated territories should be in competence of the NKR authorities. Legally, all Karabakh territories, including the liberated ones, are under jurisdiction of NKR. The fact that these territories are controlled by Karabakh Armenians is fixed in UN resolutions adopted in 1993. As to the role of Armenia, these documents “call to observe the provisions of the UN Security Council resolutions.” Furthermore, it would be advisable to seal an agreement on military cooperation between the two Armenian states, what would be a solution to a number of problems. Presently, the NKR Defense Army guards not only NKR borders but also Armenia's eastern frontiers, from the Mrav mountain ridge in the north to the Armenian-Iranian border in the south. The status of Republic of Armenia as a guarantor of Artsakh's independence and security should be fixed in international documents.

The declaration signed by the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia in Moscow offered a time out which should be used for mobilization of our potential to prevent unadvisable scenarios. It first of all refers to defense of territories and preservation of national identity.

According to the resolutions of the 1994 Budapest summit, deployment of international peacekeeping forces in Karabakh will be conditioned by a political agreement signed by the conflicting sides. We do not know when such agreement will be signed, so the talk about deployment of international troops is premature. Even after conclusion of a peace agreement, the sides can reject presence of third forces, because they learned to maintain ceasefire without assistance from the outside.

Further steps are conditioned by the declaration itself. These are meetings between the Presidents and Foreign Ministers with close cooperation with the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and development of trust-building measures.