Tuesday, January 20 2015 10:52

Our sovereignty will be strongly restricted if we do as the Madrid Principles say and let foreign troops into our territory, Nagorno-Karabakh's foreign policy and security expert Masis Mailyan told ArmInfo.

"Our sovereignty will be restricted even if those troops are patronized by influential international organizations - simply because Nagorno- Karabakh is not recognized by the world community and will have no legal levers to control those forces. So, our opinion is that we cannot allow this until we are internationally recognized," Mailyan said.
He believes that the Madrid Principles are based on the outdated logic of 1991. "Then the world community ignored the fact that we had proclaimed our independence at the same time and in the same legal way as Azerbaijan, Armenia and the other Soviet republics did. The Madrid Principles stipulate that the territories around Nagorno-Karabakh should be given to Azerbaijan, which is a direct threat to our security. The fragile peace we have had in the region since 1994 is based on a balance of forces. Once this balance is broken, there will be no more peace. The Azeris, who keep threatening us with a new war, will turn those territories into a springboard for a new aggression. We cannot allow this," Mailyan said.

"One more point of the Madrid Principles says that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh should renounce their de facto independence in favor of some unclear interim status. They voted for independence twice in 1991 and 2006 and confirmed this during several elections. Well aware what it means to live in a blockade, our people will hardly agree to exchange a long border with Armenia for some narrow and vulnerable corridor," Mailyan said. 

He noted that none of the conflicting parties fully supports the Madrid Principles. "Armenia is ready to use them as a basis for settlement.  Azerbaijan keeps evading them and suggests a comprehensive peace agreement. As regards Nagorno-Karabakh, we have repeatedly said that we do not accept the principles," Mailyan said