Azernews.Az

YEREVAN – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan claimed Monday that "a full-fledged participation" of the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh republic in peace talks would facilitate a negotiated settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

"The sooner Nagorno Karabakh joins the negotiations, the easier it would be to reach a settlement to the conflict. More precisely, the sooner Karabakh becomes fully involved, the more expectations we will have for a positive solution," Sargsyan told a joint press conference with visiting Slovenian counterpart Danilo Turk.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994, but Armenia continues to occupy Nagorno Karabakh and seven adjacent Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. Though the separatist regime in Nagorno Karabakh declared so-called independence at the time of the Soviet collapse in 1991, this "independence" has not been recognized by the world community.

Sargsyan said Yerevan’s position on Karabakh settlement remains unchanged.

"The problem is to be resolved exclusively by peaceful means, without the use of force or a threat to use force, under the existing format and in strict compliance with the norms of international law."

According to Sargsyan, every conflict has its own specifics and its own solution, "but the legal approach to all of them must be the same". He recalled in this respect the decision of the United Nations court on the Kosovo issue.

The Albanian government of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia unilaterally with the support of the U.S. and several EU countries in February 2008. The international court at the Hague ruled on July 22 that the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo does not contradict international law. The court maintained that international law does not contain any explicit ban on the declaration of independence.

Slovenian President Turk, for his part, said the Kosovo conflict differs from other disputes given that Kosovo was transferred to international governance according to a UN decision more than a decade ago.

"Peacekeeping forces were stationed in Kosovo in 1999 and the territory was transferred to international administration. It was for these reasons that the Hague court later concluded that Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence does not contradict international principles."