The struggle of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, is a national liberation struggle. Armenia’s President, and presidential candidate, Serzh Sargsyan stated this in an interview with Russia’s Ogoniok magazine. 

“The Nagorno-Karabakh people, whom Stalin had ordered to become a part of Azerbaijan, did not accept that order. The Karabakh people themselves must determine the political status they should live with in the future. There is no argument that will explain why that right should be denied to Artsakh,” Sargsyan stressed.   

The president recalled that the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) was declared in keeping with all constitutional norms of the then-collapsing USSR and of all international laws. Azerbaijan, however, responded by violence, pogroms, and war to the Karabakh people’s calls for peace.    

“And, today, the leadership of Azerbaijan threatens us with war. They set free the murderer that killed a person with an axe [that is, Ramil Safarov—the Azerbaijani army officer who had killed with an axe Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest back in 2004 and who was released in Azerbaijan last year]. Enmity toward Armenia and everything Armenia has become the propaganda motif of official Baku,” Sargsyan noted.

Also, Serzh Sargsyan stressed that Azerbaijan, despite being a UN Security Council non-permanent member, has started an arms race.       

“We are continuing the talks with Azerbaijan, but it is unrealistic to expect a breakthrough under such conditions. All those that deal with this matter know very well who is at fault for not finding a solution [to the Karabakh conflict]. They recall very well who failed the talks in Key West [USA] and in Kazan [Russia]. And they know very well that the essence of the matter is neither Nagorno-Karabakh nor the [NKR] self-defense forces’ control of the adjacent territories; consequently, the resolution does not depend on their return [to Azerbaijan],” the president of Armenia stated in particular.