Without determining current status of Nagorno-Karabakh, there can be no question of its future status -  Pashinyan

ArmInfo.There is no such concept as "People of Nagorno Karabakh" in  the legacy of the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh. On April 18, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this from the rostrum of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, answering the question of Artur Khachatryan, MP from the "Armenia" opposition  faction.

The MP, in particular, pointed to the presence in the government's five-year program of such issues as  determining the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and solving the problem on the basis of self-determination of  the people of Artsakh. Meanwhile, at present, these concepts are practically absent.

As the head of the Armenian government noted in this regard, the current government has inherited such a  concept as "the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh". <All these concepts are important in the  negotiation process. The people in the perception of the Helsinki Pact for Security and Cooperation in  Europe and other international documents are a constitutional subject, which cannot be said about the  population>, Nikol Pashinyan noted. He added that when evaluating the concept of "self-determination" it  is necessary to know from whom and where this self-determination should be recorded. Until 2007,  Pashinyan continued, Armenia applied the concept that Nagorno-Karabakh self-determined from the Soviet  Union, as Armenia and Azerbaijan did, and was not part of the territory of Azerbaijan. After that, especially  after the Madrid principles, in which it was fixed that the clarification of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh  should take place after the issue was agreed with Baku. <Today it is important to state that it is practically  impossible to resist this wording. Moreover, self-determination does not mean independence, and even  more so, statehood. It is also important to keep in mind that the subject of self-determination is not only  Armenians, but also Azerbaijanis who previously lived in Nagorno-Karabakh, who also have to make a  decision>, the RA Prime Minister said.

He added that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh did not participate in the parliamentary elections in  Armenia, and therefore, they should solve their problems themselves in the negotiations. "I do not have a  corresponding legitimate mandate for this, as I have repeatedly stated. Without determining the current  status of Nagorno-Karabakh, there can be no question of its future status>, the Prime Minister of the  Republic of Armenia emphasized.