The Republic of Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan, Artsakh’s Foreign Minister David Babayan said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia.
He said any such option is unacceptable for Artsakh and stressed that “it is the red line that will never be crossed.”
“This is what Azerbaijan has always been speaking about, this is what Azerbaijani and Turkey put even a stronger emphasis on today. We, in turn, say the option is unacceptable to us,” Babayan said.
“To achieve this, we must raise the issue from different perspectives and on different domains – political, state-building, moral and political. The enemy aims at ensuring that we voluntarily agree to come under their jurisdiction,” the Foreign Minister added.
“We will not allow this,” Minister Babayan said, adding that it will either lead to new bloodshed and war or will see Artsakh cleansed of Armenians.
The Foreign Minister noted that the delimitation and demarcation are separate issues and can in no way question the statehood of Artsakh, its state-building process, identity, etc.
David Babayan said the 3+3 platform promoted by Turkey is in no way related to the conflict settlement process.
“Back in November 2020 we correctly predicted that there could be certain offers for new formats of cooperation involving the countries of the region. But this is in no way related to the settlement of the conflict, it is related to the relations between those states, to geopolitics in the South Caucasus,” the Foreign Minister said.
He did not rule out that some platforms could be created, but those will never be engaged in the settlement of the Artsakh-Azerbaijan conflict.
“The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship is the only format engaged in the settlement of the conflict, not even the Minsk Group at large,” David Babayan said.
He noted that after yesterday’s shots in the direction of Karmir Shuka settlement the situation is calm. He is confident that Azerbaijan will never refuse from such provocations, but war is impossible while the Russian peacekeepers are present in the region.
