“Artsakh can not be part of Azerbaijan. We have always said that. I think the Armenian people, including official Yerevan, are well aware of that. We will stand until the end. We will never allow those red lines to be crossed,” Artsakh Foreign Minister David Babayan told reporters. He compared the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, noting, “And to expect an immediate settlement will not work. It will not work in a short time. We must be realistic that a final, comprehensive settlement is still a matter of the distant future. That is why we must keep Artsakh by all means. There are many opportunities.”
According to Babayan, if there is no comprehensive settlement, Artsakh will maintain its status as a de facto independent, sovereign country, as the minister said, until we see what will happen in the future. “It is clear to us that it will be difficult to reach a speedy settlement, but the red line is that we can not be with Azerbaijan in any way, for example, within them or depending on them. It will not happen, it is unacceptable for us.” Is there any option offered? In response to this question, Babayan said that there is no option. “Azerbaijan claims its version and says Artsakh does not exist, but we say it is not true. And not only us, but also the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries always say that.”
Nelly BABAYAN
