Karabakh conflict can be resolved based on compromises

“It was initially clear to everyone that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict could be resolved based on compromises, without which the problem has no solution,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said, when responding to questions of MPs at the PACE session in Strasbourg.

In his words, after a long process, the Minks Group in 2007 proposed a document – the so-called Madrid Principles” - to the sides.

“The document envisages the conflict resolution on the basis of three fundamental principles – nonuse of force and threat of force, peoples’ right to self-determination, and territorial integrity. After receiving the document, we said that we considered the conflict’s settlement based on those principles as possible,” S. Sargsyan said.

He reminded those present that after a pause, Azerbaijan also declared that it was prepared for the problem’s resolution based on those principles.

“Since 2008 I has been directly involved in the negotiations. For over three years, negotiations with the Azerbaijani president were conducted with the mediation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. In the summer of 2011, there was an opinion that the sides were ready to sign a document on the fundamental principles. We traveled to Kazan to sign that document. In Kazan, the Azerbaijani president refused to sign it, putting forward ten additional proposals. Under such conditions, it became impossible to sign the document,” the president of Armenia said.