Azerbaijan has serious ground to press for a national referendum, Azeri political scientist Leyla Aliyeva said. According to her if legal conditions are created for conduction of a referendum in Karabakh, the items of the referendum should exclude controversy between the principle of territorial integrity and the right to self-determination. “The items of the referendum should refer to various levels of autonomy. It’s another matter, who will determine these items. Anyway, conduction of the referendum in Karabakh only is pregnant with big problems for Baku,” she said. “The only logic used by the Co-chairs is that Baku should hold immediate talks with Karabakh. This standpoint is supported by all the international mediating missions. Anyway, Karabakh does take part in the talks but not as a side in conflict but as a concerned party,” she remarked.
Aliyeva said some progress has been achieved. “The optimist of the mediators may be explained by this fact. Compromise on a stepwise plan was achieved. The sides also agreed that the talks on Nagorno Karabakh’s status will be delayed for 10 years. I think it’s an advance,” she said. At the same time the Azeri political scientist said that “in order not to lose this achievement the mediators apply cautious wordings. “These wordings base on the agreements achieved. They leave open the issue of the referendum and territorial integrity, which in our case conflict with in other. If earlier representatives of some foreign states used to say that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be resolved within the framework of territorial integrity, so now such statements can be heard very rarely. The wording on the referendum does not answer the question what’s more important self-determination or territorial integrity,” Aliyeva considers, reported Realazer.com.
