Karabakh leader tells OSCE Minsk Group former status, borders can't be reinstated
YEREVAN. May 19 (Interfax) - Stepanakert is adherent to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the OSCE Minsk Group framework but it is not ready to revise the status and borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, unrecognized republic president Bako Sahakyan said.
"The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic president told the OSCE Minsk Group cochairman in Stepanakert on Sunday that Karabakh saw independence and freedom as exclusive values and it was impossible to reinstate either the former status or the borders. Stepanakert is adherent to the peaceful settlement of the conflict within the Minsk Group framework," a source in the Karabakh president's press service told Interfax.
Sahakyan congratulated new OSCE Minsk Group French Cochairman Pierre Andrieu on his appointment and expressed hope for his active involvement in the peace process.
OSCE Minsk Group U.S. Cochairman James Warlick presented the official position of the U.S. government on the Karabakh peace process in his speech at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington DC on May 7. "The sides should commit to determining its final legal status through a mutually agreed and legally binding expression of will in the future," Warlick said.
