Azerbaijan declares readiness to give broad autonomy to NKR

Ali Gasanov, an assistant to Azerbaijani president, has stated that his country is ready to provide the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) with broad autonomy if it gets back to Azerbaijan. The political analysts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", were sceptical about this proposal.

Baku is ready for a compromise in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, The Jerusalem Post quotes Mr Gasanov as saying.

Zardusht Alizade, a political analyst, treats the above statement as rhetorical. "It’s naive to believe that Armenia, which had occupied the territory of Azerbaijan with Russia’s help, will agree to the status of KBR’s autonomy within Azerbaijan," he said.

In his opinion, other countries will support Baku’s proposal only when Azerbaijan becomes an attractive country for living.

According to Togrul Djuvarly, a member of the Azerbaijan National Public Committee for European Integration (ANPCEI), the NKR’s return to Azerbaijan under broad autonomy will optimally combine the principles of territorial integrity and the right of nations to self-determination.

The settlement of the Karabakh conflict is hampered by Russia, Khikmet Gadjizade, the head of the FAR Centre for Political and Economic Studies, believes.

The proposal to grant autonomy to NKR is irrelevant, believes Tofig Zulfugarov, a former Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, explaining, "The conflict has already passed over into another dimension; it is now an Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict."

The NKR was recognized as an independent state by Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.