The Armenian authorities have invited Turkey to the region, Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian told the reporters on Thursday. According to him, in the contest of Karabakh conflict, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh should be considered as sovereign states.

The international community should realize that Armenia considers Karabakh a sovereign state and it will not hinder the peace process, as some politicians may think, he stressed. Raffi Hovannisian deems that Armenia has no legal grounds to negotiate on behalf of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia should manage to express its political, moral and legal view on Karabakh. “It will not increase a threat of a war. On the contrary, international community will speak with Armenia another way,” he noted, adding that Armenia’s three presidents did not use this opportunity.

As to Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s joining Heritage party in 2008, despite different positions on Karabakh conflict, Heritage member Stepan Safaryan said, “In 2008 Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that the Karabakh problem should be solved by Karabakh people. This was the minimum requirement  for Heritage party to join the oppositional candidate.”