It would be better is Nagorno-Karabakh’s status were determined by means of referendum, not by an expression of popular will, said Hovhannes Hovhannisyan Chairman of the Commission for Civil Society, RA Public Council. He regards as inadmissible the fact that the Madrid Principles place major burden of mutual concessions on the Nagorno-Karabakh side.

According to him, the Nagorno-Karabakh side’s concessions are much more essential, whereas any concessions on the part of Azerbaijan remain unclear.

Hovhannisyan considers the Madrid document to be progress as compared with the Key West and Paris documents.

It should be noted that neither the Key West nor Paris documents have ever been published. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have never clarified them to the public.

So it is unclear how a person that has never been immediately involved in the negotiations is able to compare the documents.

Hovhannisyan believes part of the progress in the Madrid document is that it does not stipulate Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.