Will Armenia recognize Karabakh after the April fighting?

‘’Recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia will mean the violation of all the principles of international law, including the UN Security Council resolutions, the PACE document and the Council of Europe, and will cross many proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu said today, commenting on the radio station ‘Moscow Speaking’ on the proposal by Armenian MPs to recognize the independence of the so-called NKR.

The co-chairs, among which is Russia, will have to express their opinion on this issue, and in the case of acceptance of such an irresponsible decision all the responsibility for this decision and its negative consequences will fall on the shoulders of the current deputies and the leadership of Armenia, the ambassador said.

"If on May 5th the Armenian Parliament will take a decision on the recognition of the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, it will be another provocation, like the one that the Armenian side made in early April. In this case, all the responsibility for this will be borne by the Armenian side, because the consequences will be negative. But as long as the decision is not accepted, and I hope that common sense will prevail, as it did previously, when the question of the recognition of the independence of Karabakh has been already submitted for discussion in the parliament," Polad Bulbuloglu said on the radio ‘Moscow Speaking', responding to a question about how Azerbaijan perceives a report that Armenia may recognize Karabakh's independence.

"Recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia will mean violation of all the principles of international law, including the UN Security Council resolutions, the PACE document, the Council of Europe, and will cross out many proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group. There are concrete proposals on the withdrawal of the occupying forces. The conflict should be resolved. That means, first of all, liberation of the occupied territories.

The second side of the conflict is the Armenian side, exactly the Armenian soldiers fighting in Karabakh. The Expeditionary Forces of the Armenian troops should be withdrawn from the territory of Azerbaijan,"  the ambassador added.

The official representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Hikmet Hajiyev, also noted that the recognition of the Yerevan occupation regime in Nagorno-Karabakh would deprive the Minsk Group’s mandate.

‘’A recognition of the separatist regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan means a denial of the official Yerevan of the negotiation process initiated by the Minsk Group. This means the rejection of the negotiation process. This means that the Minsk Group will not have a mandate for the conduction of the negotiation process. This is a clear example of abuse and arbitrary practices against the Minsk process group, its co-chairs and the international community,’’ the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said, adding that the international community must adequately respond to these provocative actions of Armenia.

The offer of the Armenian deputies on the recognition of Nagorno Karabakh's independence - another provocation of the Armenian leadership, the deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, the Head of the Foreign Relations Department, Novruz Mammadov, said.

Earlier President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan said in Berlin that Nagorno-Karabakh is waiting for the international community's recognition of its rightsn Berlin President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

"Since 1988 these people (in Nagorno-Karabakh) have to fight for freedom and recognition of the equality of their rights, with the same rights of other people. They actually succeeded in setting the imposed war, blockade and constantly violated ceasefire. They take the right steps in this direction. They are waiting only for one thing from the the international community- the recognition of this right,’’  Sargsyan said.

Armenia will recognize the independence of the unrecognized so-called NKR, if Azerbaijan  launches new military operations against it,  the Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister, Shavarsh Kocharyan, said today in Yerevan.

He explained that the inclusion of the issue on the agenda of the Armenian government meeting on May 5th, does not mean recognition of NKR. "The agenda includes the issue not of an approval of the draft law (of recognition) by the government, but about the issuing of the conclusions regarding to the legislative initiative of the two MPs, the deputy minister said.