YEREVAN. – In terms of the Azerbaijani President’s proposal of “European model of autonomy” for Nagorno-Karabakh, I would advise Ilham Aliyev not to experiment because a negotiation format exists, Armenian MP and member of Armenia’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Naira Zohrabyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.   

“There is a clear format on the negotiation table. If the Azerbaijani President does not attempt to come up with experimental proposals every time, the Karabakh problem would definitely be resolved,” Zohrabyan said. She also noted that the international organizations have begun to more emphasize the nations’ right for self-determination as paramount and priority value specified by UN Charter. “Aliyev must reconcile with the idea that, aside from his very much loved principle of territorial integrity, there exists another equal international norm: the nations’ right for self-determination. And in a greater sense, it is already time for the Azerbaijani political elite to prepare its people not to war, but to the idea that Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence has no alternative,” Naira Zohrabyan noted. 

Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier that Azerbaijani President stated Karabakh is the biggest issue for Azerbaijan and the conflict threatens the region. Aliyev blamed Armenians for ethnic cleansing, as a result of which “millions of Azerbaijanis became homeless and refugees,” but he kept silent on hundreds of thousands of forced Armenian refugees; the situation still continues.