Both names need to be used, including Nagorno-Karabakh and Artsakh. This is what Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Davit Babayan said today, in response to Armenian News-NEWS.am’s request to comment on the fact that Azerbaijan is making attempts to present the seized sector of Nagorno-Karabakh as Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole and make the issue of existence of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh a secondary issue, and with this, it is falsifying the realities.

The foreign minister stated that there are truly problems with terminology. “First of all, even geographically speaking, Artsakh and Nagorno-Karabakh don’t match 100%. Nagorno-Karabakh is a broader concept. Nagorno-Karabakh includes a large part of Artsakh, Utik, a rather large portion of Syunik Province, almost all of Zangezur and a part of Nakhchivan.

Both names are historically Armenian names, and it so happened that we Armenians are obliged to use both names. The Republic of Artsakh is the inheritor of the heritage of the past in terms of law and history and the heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh and Artsakh accumulated throughout millennia. Back then, neither Azerbaijan nor Turkey existed. In this sense, “donating” Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan is unacceptable, and the same goes for the name “Artsakh”,” Babayan said.