NGO leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh condemn Azerbaijani militaristic rhetoric

On December 4, in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, experts and leaders of public organizations expressed their opinions on the radical statements and military threats announced by the authorities of Azerbaijan.

Speaking to the sitting of the Board of NGOs and Public Experts, Gegam Bagdasaryan, president of the Stepanakert Press Club, noted that Azerbaijan tries to show its refusal to try to solve the problem by force as the greatest concession. These threats stem from the logic of today's negotiations, when a chance appears to solve the problem, as Mr Bagdasaryan believes.

Ashot Adamyan, who represented the Stepanakert Resource Centre, expressed the opinion that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev realizes the absolute unacceptability of the military way to solve the Karabakh problem; however, this military way cannot be excluded by hundred percent yet.

Irina Grigoryan, head of the above Centre, said that the silence of activists of the peacemaking movement of Azerbaijan is unacceptable.

In total, activists of the NGO sector of Nagorno-Karabakh spoke in favour of revising the principles of settling the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, the present format of negotiations, and the mediators' approaches to settling the problem.

The participants of the meeting supported the restoration of Nagorno-Karabakh's status as a party in the conflict, which, in particular, is fixed in the documents of the OSCE and the United Nations.