The Armenian Parliament adopted, in the second reading, draft amendments to the RA Law on International Agreements. The amendments provide for the establishment of legal relationship and signing of agreements with unrecognized national entities. The Heritage Party, which objected to the document, did not participate in the voting.
RA Deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan stated in Parliament that RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s statement at the OSCE Summit in Astana necessitated the amendments. Without going into details as to which particular points of the Armenian leader’s statement necessitated the amendments, Sh. Kocharyan said: “Points concerning Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The Heritage faction members once again severely criticized the bill. Instead of making steps to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian authorities adopt laws equaling it to illegal national entities. Faction members stressed that the document will affect international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Sh. Kocharyan got angry at the Heritage members’ statements. He stated that the concept of “entity” incorporated in the document has a collective meaning of “republic, organization, state.” He stressed that the document will facilitate international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as it makes Nagorno-Karabakh an international entity. “After the document has been adopted, Azerbaijan will not be able to abuse the fact that Nagorno-Karabakh is an entity subordinate to Armenia, which signs ‘inter-entity’ agreements,” Sh. Kocharyan said.
At the OSCE Summit in Astana, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated that Nagorno-Karabakh exercised its right to self-determination under USSR and international laws. “The President stressed that Armenian was a guarantor of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence and security. That does not at all mean that the issue of recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia has been removed from the agenda. But the optimal moment must be chosen for that for Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh to fully benefit from it. We do not want to remain alone after recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh. Rather, we want Nagorno-Karabakh to be internationally recognized,” Sh. Kocharyan said.
