YEREVAN. – Armenia’s National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov on Tuesday received a Russian State Duma delegation, which on Wednesday will head from Yerevan to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) to conduct an observation mission during NKR presidential elections to be held Thursday.   

NA Deputy Speaker expressed a conviction that, by visiting Karabakh, the Russian delegation members will become convinced that, by building an independent state, the NKR people anchor themselves in democratic values, NA press service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. 

In the words of Russian State Duma MP Aleksander Balberov, their current visit is conditioned on the conviction that any conflict, including the Karabakh one, can solely be resolved pacifically.  

“The people themselves must decide in which country to live, who should govern them, [and] how they should develop,” said Balberov.

In his turn, NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Artak Zakaryan, who likewise was partaking in the meeting, stated that Russian State Duma MPs’ decision to conduct an observation mission during NKR presidential elections is a bold and commendable step, since Azerbaijan makes non-equivalent assessments to such position.  

As per Zakaryan, NKR’s upcoming presidential elections are yet another indicator that Karabakh is on the road to democracy. Also, he underscored the need to form, with joint efforts, a climate of mutual trust in the region.

And Russia’s Public Chamber member Denis Dvornikov noted that in his view, and from the point of view of international law, the Karabakh problem has but one solution: all people have the right to self-determine.    

In his words, the civil structures likewise have a great role to play in the fight against the distortion of history and toward the restoration of truth and justice.  

And NA Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov proposed to increase cooperation among such structures.