The Armenian Parliament has postponed the vote on the bill on recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) until December 9. The vote was postponed at the suggestion the authors, Heritage Party.

Immediately after Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan announced the vote, Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group Galust Sahakyan took the floor. He read out a statement by the ruling coalition. According to the document, international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh has no alternative. “The Armenian ruling coalition is supportive of the process. On the other hand, its position is that unilateral recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by Yerevan is not in line with the Armenian President’s constructive position in the context of negotiations within the OSCE Minsk Group.,” says the statement. The ruling coalition is also for the conflict to be settled on the basis of international principles. “However, if the negotiations fail, the ruling coalition is ready to initiate the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh or support other forces’ similar initiatives,” says the document.

All of a sudden, Heritage Party Chairman Raffi Hovhannisyan took the floor. He stated the party is ready to accept the ruling coalition’s proposal to postpone the vote until the OSCE Summit in Astana. “I am sure nothing will change either before or after the Summit. Even if anything changed, it would be we. So we have accepted your proposal and are ready to postpone the vote until December 9, so that the Parliament unanimously adopt it, especially so as the following day, December 10, Nagorno-Karabakh will mark the 20th anniversary of its independence,” Hovhannisyan said.