Karabakh Leaders Praise Germany Chancellor Scholz for Advocating Right to Self-determination

STEPANAKERT — Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership on Friday praised German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for advocating an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal that would respect the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination.

Scholz called for a “peaceful settlement based on the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh citizens’ right to self-determination” after holding talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday.

“These principles are equally applicable,” he told a joint news conference in Berlin.

“We welcome Olaf Scholz’s statement that the conflict should be settled peacefully on the basis of equal principles of [territorial] integrity & right to self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people,” tweeted Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president. “Settlement is impossible without fully considering our fundamental/collective rights.”

Peace plans jointly drafted by the United States, Russia and France prior to the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war upheld the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination, which would be exercised through a referendum.