September 21, 2007 - 17:40 AMT
Bako Sahakian: we hope Karabakh's stance will be taken into account
Nagorno Karabakh should participate in peaceful negotiations as full-right party, NKR President Bako Sahakian said. He described the meeting with the OSCE MG Co-chairs as positive. "Meetings of the kind will contribute to the OSCE MG mandate, specifically to Karabakh's joining the talks. Nagorno Karabakh has its stand on the settlement and we are hopeful it will be taken into account," Mr Sahakian underscored adding that Armenia is the major guarantor of peace in the conflict zone.

NKR representatives took part in the talks until 1996. The delegation was debarred at Azerbaijan's urgent request to engage the so-called Azeri community of NKR led by Nizami Bakhmanov in negotiations. Then-president Levon Ter-Pertosyan's "vague" position on the issue was another reason for NKR's exclusion from the process. In 1998 Levon Ter-Pertosyan handed in resignation.