NK conflict has no military solution: Vigen Sargsyan

The Nagorno Karabakh doesn’t have and cannot have a military solution, Armenia’s Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan said in an interview to the Russian Interfax news agency.

“We hope that this is very well understood in Azerbaijan also. We hope that people having the responsibility of making decision in Baku realize that it is very easy to open doors for chaos and large-scale war, however stopping it would be extremely difcult. This will definitely strengthen the role of terrorist groups in the region, the role of non-regional actors will also increase, who will start to benet from all that,” he said.

Vigen Sargsyan mentioned that after all this the settlement of the conflict will be incredibly difficult. “In this sense I hope that the foreign ministers of the conflicting countries will be able to nd new common grounds of contacts, although the circle of opportunities is quite limited,” the Minister added.

He noted that Nagorno Karabakh isn’t a conflict; it is rather a country, although unrecognized. According to the Minister, as long as this fact hasn’t been fully perceived, the conflict won’t be settled.

“People live here in de facto independent conditions for already a quarter century. They are accountable for their decisions, they form their government based on democratic principles, the parliament is formed as result of free elections,” Sargsyan said.

Vigen Sargsyan also mentioned that any ceasere violation in the Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact is a breach of international commitments assumed by the sides. He stressed that any stepback from these commitments can lead to serious escalations.

“We are in favor of introducing investigative mechanisms and establishing supervision in the line of contact. These kind of agreements have been reached in Vienna (May 16, 2016) in mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group and in St. Petersburg (June 20, 2016) during meetings mediated by the Russian president.

But, unfortunately, Azerbaijan is once again refusing from its commitments, and this leaves a very negative trace on the process of seeking ways for the conflict’s settlement. Each side is making its own choice. But we believe that the situation which exists today, denfiitely does not create prospects for the conflict’s settlement,” the Minister said.