ArmInfo. Armenia will recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, but it considers that the Karabakh conflict should be settled also with due regard for the peoples' right to self-determination, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan says in an interview with Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today) director general Dmitry Kiselyov.
"We will recognize the territorial integrity of any state, including Azerbaijan. However, peoples' right to self-determination does not at all run counter to the principle of territorial integrity, because territorial integrity concerns relations between states, whereas self-determination concerns the people who densely live in the civilized world. All problems are settled without use of force, especially on the historical motherland. If we deny the principle of peoples' self-determination, then we would not have withdrawn from the Soviet Union. Therefore, these principles do not contradict each other," he says.
Sargsyan recalls that for several times Yerevan and Baku have been close to signing of a document on Karabakh settlement, which would reflect the basic principles. "That is to say, the Armenian sides - Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia - would leave the territories currently serving as a security zone. The matter concerns the territories Azerbaijan qualifies as occupied. But the first item in the document clearly said that the final legal status of Karabakh would be settled through free expression of Karabakh population's will. This free expression of will has a compulsory legal force. The document also pointed out the agenda. A referendum would exercise the principle of self-determination. But every time the Azerbaijani side laid down new demands," Sargsyan says.
He notes that the Armenian side is still ready to get back to such a document, but this means nothing because in such cases all the sides should be ready.
Sargsyan adds the April events demonstrated that there is absolutely no confidence between the sides.