Babayan: Armenian side has never recognized Artsakh as part of  Azerbaijan by any document

ArmInfo.The Armenian side has never recognized Artsakh as a part of Azerbaijan by any document. This was stated by Advisor to the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh  Republic, Artsakh President's Representative-at-Large, former Foreign  Minister of Artsakh David Babayan.

 "If this was so, then why did we start the Artsakh movement? We separated from Azerbaijan in 1988, and Armenia has repeatedly accepted this fact, as well as the whole  world. There is a Minsk group, Artsakh is recognized as a party to  the conflict and a party to negotiations by the same OSCE, this is a  fact, and we must speak only with facts," Babayan added.

According to him, in spite of everything, the Armenian side must act  as its duty requires, that is, Artsakh should not be part of  Azerbaijan. "Why should we now self-determine as part of Azerbaijan?  We did it a long time ago, and we made our choice," he summed up.

It should be noted that yesterday the Prime Minister of Armenia from  the rostrum of the parliament again presented his interpretation of  the legacy left to him by the "former authorities" on the  Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.  According to him, to solve this  problem, it is necessary to look at it from two points of view -  before the Madrid principles and after them. "Before the Madrid  principles, the position of the Armenian side was that  Nagorno-Karabakh was never part of an independent Azerbaijan, and in  the context of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Artsakh exercised  its right to self-determination, leaving the USSR along with other  subjects as an independent subject, which is recorded in the Almaty  Declaration.

In 2007, when Robert Kocharyan was the head of state, and Serzh  Sargsyan was the prime minister of the republic, the Madrid  principles appeared, which emphasized both the territorial integrity  of states and the right of peoples to self-determination. At that  time, it was pointed out that it was necessary to clarify the status  of Nagorno-Karabakh using certain mechanisms that should have been  agreed with Azerbaijan as well. Before the Madrid principles, it was  about the Soviet Union, after them - Azerbaijan. This means that  Nagorno-Karabakh must be part of Azerbaijan in order to  self-determine, otherwise, it is not clear from whom it is  self-determined. This content is our main omission," Pashinyan  stressed, assuring that the authorities are in a trap from which they  have not been able to get out since 2018.  It should be noted that  this statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia at least raises many  questions. If these allegations of Pashinyan are true, then why,  then, in October 2016, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, at  a meeting of the government of the country, complained to members of  the Cabinet of Ministers that Azerbaijan was being forced to  recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. "We are under pressure  behind closed doors in order to force an agreement on the recognition  of the independence of Nagorno- Karabakh. We do not disclose many  details, because there are rules of diplomacy," Ilham Aliyev said  during a speech at a cabinet meeting on the results of socio-economic  development nine months of 2016 and the challenges ahead.

In addition, after the large-scale military aggression against  Artsakh in the fall of 2020, Aliyev boasted that he managed to  "return 7 regions" and even Shushi, while Serzh Sargsyan was not  going to return Karvachar and Berdzor.