Karabakh Will Never Agree to Live Under Azeri Rule – Davit Babayan

STEPANAKERT — Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian leadership and population will never agree to live under Azerbaijani rule, NKR Foreign Minister Davit Babayan said on Thursday.

“This is the red line which we will never cross regardless of anything,” Babayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Whatever promises Azerbaijan could give us, those promises won’t be serious, they won’t be fulfilled.”

“For us, there is no chance of survival within Azerbaijan,” he said. “We would either be turned into a concentration camp or there would be a genocide and ethnic cleansing of Armenians.”

Therefore, the Karabakh Armenians will not even discuss any status of their region within Azerbaijan, added Babayan.

Babayan said that the Karabakh leadership is making “intensive” efforts to stabilize and improve the security situation with the help of Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Karabakh.

“We must stay strong, make the right geopolitical choices and understand that we have no right to make mistakes at this historic moment,” he said.