Military solution to Karabakh conflict should be ruled out – Armenia’s PM

YEREVAN, May 9. /TASS/. Armenia thinks it necessary to rule out a military solution for the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told reporters at a news conference in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital of Stepanakert.

“We need to exclude a chance for a military solution to the conflict, but Azerbaijan is still engaged in military adventure in the line of fire,” Pashinyan said.

“We must give a clear answer to one question whether we want a solution to the Karabakh crisis or not,” he continued. “We are for a peace solution to the issue.”

Armenia’s newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh earlier on Wednesday.

On April 13, Armenia’s opposition called for widespread protests in that South Caucasus republic. MP Nikol Pashinyan headed the rallies protesting against the election of former President Serzh Sargsyan as prime minister. On April 23, in the wake of protests Sargsyan tendered his resignation. On May 8 the parliament elected Pashinyan as new prime minister by 59 votes to 42. Vagram Bagdasaryan, the head of the ruling Republican Party faction, said ahead of the vote that eleven deputies of the faction would vote for Pashinyan “to preserve stability in the country.”

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Mountainous Karabakh) is a mostly Armenian-populated enclave inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. It was the first zone of inter-ethnic tensions and violence to appear on the map of the former USSR.

Even almost a quarter of a century after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Karabakh remains a so-called ‘frozen conflict’ on the post-Soviet space, as the region is the subject of a dispute between Azerbaijan and the local Armenian population that draws on strong support from fellow-countrymen in neighboring Armenia.

In 1988, hostilities broke out there between the forces reporting to the government in Baku and Armenian residents, which resulted in the region’s de facto independence. In 1994, a ceasefire was reached but the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia remain strained ever since then.

Russia, France and the U.S. co-chair the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which attempts to broker an end to hostilities and the conflict. –0-mil/