Baku tends to soothe its rhetoric following the August war

PanARMENIAN.Net - On the whole, Baku tends to soften its positions on Karabakh following the war in Georgia. Baku is already willing to encourage confidence measures (Moscow Declaration, clause 5) and consider Karabakh people's desire of having a land border with Armenia and living in secure conditions, Masis Mayilyan, Head of NKR Foreign Policy and Security Council, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. Masis Mayilyan finds that NKR status was determined in the 1991 referendum and further reconfirmed by NKR population in the 1996 constitutional referendum. "Besides, the people of Karabakh indirectly confirmed the country's independent status 8 times during parliamentary and presidential elections in which the country's independent status was and continues to be considered a priority. As regards the "unilateral decisions on Karabakh status", the problem here is that all the residents of Karabakh had the opportunity to participate in 1991 referendum, and special voting bulletins were prepared for Azeri minorities to enable their participation in the voting. As to why they didn't exercise their right to express indifference to Karabakh, the answer to that question should be sought in Baku. Today, there's no need for anyone to get involved in the processes seceding Karabakh from Azerbaijan. The only thing we can talk about at present is the NKR people's right to self-determination," Mr. Mayilyan stressed.



Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev announced in Moscow that the issue of determining the NKR status may be delayed for some period. "Unilateral decisions on NKR status are unacceptable. Azerbaijan does not see any process implying Nagorno Karabakh's legal secession from Azerbaijan and will never be involved in such processes. This is our unequivocal position."