“We cherish vain hopes...” Armenian MP’s opinion about Karabakh “independence”

Member of parliament (MP) from the ruling Civil Contract party Arsen Torosyan has clarified his statement that Karabakh never had a chance of having a status outside of Azerbaijan.

'I stated that of course, the independence of the 'Nagorno-Karabakh Republic' would be possible in case of Azerbaijan’s consent. However, now it is obvious that Baku would never agree to this. If there was such an opportunity, then why it was not used by the current opposition, which was in power during that period,' Torosyan told the Armenia 1 TV channel on September 7, Caliber.Az reports with reference to the Armenian media.

He is sure that the Armenian former authorities failed to achieve the independence of Karabakh, because "it could not have happened".

'Facts, history, and our sad experience have shown that this opportunity never existed,' the MP said.

Torosyan noted that the statements about the equivalence of all three principles of the settlement, namely, the right to self-determination, territorial integrity, and non-use of force are manipulations.

'Experience has shown that this is not so. This was shown not only by the war [the second Karabakh war] in 2020 but also by the war in April 2016,' he said.

As for the remark that even the Azerbaijani president complained that pressure was put on him to recognise Karabakh, Torosyan noted that he [the president] didn’t recognise it, so the pressure was not very high.

"I reiterate that we cherished vain hopes that the pressure there - behind closed doors could give some result," he said.

He noted that Azerbaijan used the period of negotiations for armament and economic development, initially intending to resolve the issue by force if it was impossible to achieve the desired result through negotiations.