Sharmazanov explains  reasons why authorities during tenure of  Armenia`s third president chose not to recognize Artsakh`s  independence

ArmInfo. Eduard Sharmazanov, former Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament and member of the Republican Party (RPA), has clarified why the  authorities under Armenia's third president, Serzh Sargsyan, did not  recognize Artsakh's independence.

The RPA member emphasized in a conversation with reporters before the  parliamentary hearings on the draft law "On the National Crisis and  Failure of Governance," that  this was not done because the political  party's goal was not unilateral recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh  Republic, but international recognition within the framework of the  OSCE Minsk Group negotiation process. "Armenia's unilateral  recognition of the NKR would mean torpedoing the Artsakh negotiation  process. Our negotiating legacy provided the opportunity to secure,  first and foremost, international recognition of the NKR through a  referendum," Sharmazanov pointed out.

The Republican is convinced that it was Armenian Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan, who with his "Artsakh is Armenia, that's it" statement in  Stepanakert on August 4, 2019,  shifted the focus of negotiations  from self-determination to a territorial dispute, thereby undermining  the entire process of international recognition of the NKR's  independence.  "All claims that the OSCE Minsk Group format has  reached a dead end are false. Moreover,  if previously the process of  recognizing Artsakh's independence was always undermined by  Azerbaijan, then  after Nikol Pashinyan came to power, Armenia also  joined in," the RPA member noted. Additionally, he mentioned that  after the April 2016 war, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov  noted that it was Azerbaijan, not Armenia, that rejected the 2011  Kazan Document. Sharmazanov further highlighted Azerbaijani President  Ilham Aliyev's statement that "in October 2016, behind closed doors,  the international community had demanded that he recognize Artsakh's  independence."

"Let Nikol Pashinyan publish the 2019 document proposed by the OSCE  Minsk Group, which reportedly outlined an interim status for Artsakh  leading to  independence through a referendum, and then everything  will become clear," the Republican concluded.