As reported by Mediamax agency, President Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with the representatives of the international Media on September 20. In response to the question “Where is the borderline of mutual concessions, where is the boundary not to be crossed by Armenia, and can Armenia theoretically imagine Karabakh as a federative or any other state that forms part of Azerbaijan?”, the President said, “It was long ago that we announced about that borderline – at least 14 years ago, when we were signing a ceasefire agreement; we also announced about it several times thereafter. The borderline is that it is necessary to recognize the right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination. That’s to say, we have the following problem: the people of Nagorno Karabakh have lived on this territory for thousands of years, and now it is necessary to create relevant conditions for them to continue living safely on their lands. The period, I mean the Soviet times, when Karabakh formed part of Azerbaijan, came to prove that the country could no longer continue its safe existence as part of Azerbaijan. As regards the theoretical option as to whether or not Karabakh can form part of Azerbaijan, I can say that this can be determined through a referendum – by asking the people of Karabakh to express their opinion. But I am sure that no matter what may happen in the near future, the result of any referendum will be the same, i.e. the people of Karabakh will not want to live in an Azerbaijani-governed territory. I have told Azeri President Ilham Aliev that if the Azeris want to show that they are seriously interested in the secure life and future of Karabakh, they may make investments, serious investments in Nagorno Karabakh and prove that Azerbaijan is ready to make investments and convince the people of Karabakh that it can be a guarantor of their security. Maybe thereafter, during the referendum, the people of Karabakh will express desire to live inside an Azerbaijani-governed state. Should one day Nagorno Karabakh become part of Azerbaijan by some miracle, no single Armenian will remain there after a short while.” To the question why Armenia hadn’t recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and whether it was ready to recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh, Sargsyan gave the following answer, “Nothing can be ruled out. Today, the issue of recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is not included in our agenda. It may seem strange to you that we have always been a supporter of the right to self-determination but haven’t recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Our approach is clear: we ourselves are facing a similar problem, i.e. the problem of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. We cannot recognize Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia unless we have recognized Nagorno Karabakh. As to why we do not recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh is because we are currently negotiating with Azerbaijan and want to achieve the solution of the problem through peace talks. Do you remember that recognition was said to be the last variant while discussing the case of Kosovo and the other conflicts? If there’s no other choice left, Armenia will recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh.”
