Gagik Minasyan: NKR can't be part of Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - NKR's involvement in negotiations will bring Azeri society back to reality, otherwise it society will keep expecting something which can't possibly happen, RPA parliamentary group member Gagik Minasyan said.



As he told a news conference in Yerevan, NKR's direct participation in negotiations will make it clear to Azeri public that Karabakh can't be part of Azerbaijan. "It's Azeri authorities fault that the public in the country is up till now out of touch with reality," the MP noted.



The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.



After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923 it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that was fought from 1991 to 1994.



Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of Nagorno Karabakh defence army.



Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.