Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan praised German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for advocating Artsakh’s right to self-determination within the framework of a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
After meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Berlin on Thursday, Scholz called for a “peaceful settlement based on the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh citizens’ right to self-determination.”
“These principles are equally applicable,” he told a joint news conference.
“We welcome Olaf Scholz’s statement that the conflict should be settled peacefully on the basis of equal principles of [territorial] integrity & right to self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people,” tweeted Harutyunyan. “Settlement is impossible without fully considering our fundamental/collective rights.”
The right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh was one of the key elements of principles drafted by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries of France, the United States and Russia, which also called for a referendum as an exercise of that right.
However, after the 44-Day-War, advocating for that inalienable right became more muted, with Armenia’s authorities, especially Pashinyan, calling for the ensuring of the safety and security of the people of Artsakh.
