Shavarsh Kocharyan: No one is authorized to negotiate on behalf of  Artsakh on issues directly related to it

ArmInfo. Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan began his speech at the international conference "Cooperation for Justice and Peace" in  Stepanakert with two questions: why  the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,  being dealt at such a high level (three members of the UN Security  Council are mediators) , has not been settled yet and why the just  right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination turned into  bloodshed.

According to him, considering these two issues, it can be stated that  in fact only one result has been achieved in the negotiation process  that the people felt, and this is result is the ceasefire agreement  signed in 1994. He recalled that there is a document that was then  written by the then President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, and who  gave the vice speaker of the parliament to conduct negotiations with  Artsakh to organize a meeting at the level of the heads of state of  both countries. "The essence of this document is that it is written  in Russian and the part that refers to Artsakh uses the NKR  abbreviation (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), signed by Aliyev himself.  That is, we can at least record that Azerbaijan accepted Artsakh as a  party to the conflict, negotiated with him at various levels,  including at the level of top officials and thanks to this we have  this result, namely the establishment of a ceasefire regime,  "Shavarsh Kocharyan emphasized.

In this context, he added that as long as Azerbaijan avoids direct  negotiations with Artsakh, moreover, it pretends that there is no  such entity, it means that Baku does not want to resolve the issue.

According to the deputy minister the problem is that without Artsakh  it is impossible to achieve progress in resolving the conflict. He  added that no one is authorized to conduct negotiations on behalf of  Artsakh on those issues that concern Artsakh itself- these are the  issues of status and territorial integrity. "Even the Artsakh  authorities are squeezed on the issue of territorial integrity with  the mandate given by the people at the referendum," the RA Deputy  Foreign Minister said.

He once again pointed out Azerbaijan's unwillingness to resolve the  conflict, accusing Baku of conducting an informational propaganda  war, the sole purpose of which is to convince the international  community that the issue here is not for the right of peoples to  self-determination, but only a territorial conflict between Armenia  and Azerbaijan. However, according to him, the facts prove the  opposite, pointing to the real parties to the conflict.

At the same time, he recalled the barbaric acts of Azerbaijan in  Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad, during the April events of 2016.

Speaking about the right to self-determination, Kocharyan emphasized:  ''This is the right enshrined in the UN Charter as one of the three  goals of the organization. A law that cannot be opposed to the  principle of any international law, including, above all, territorial  integrity. A law that prevails over any other international  instrument, be that bilateral or multilateral one. If there is a  conflict between the right to self- determination, as enshrined in  the UN Charter, and the provision of any other international treaty,  then the right to self-determination applies. Our duty is to support  and be guided by the right to self-determination, clearly expressed  by the people of Artsakh''.