Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has restated Armenia's position that a poll of people in Karabakh alone should determine the region's legal status.
Nalbandian set out the condition at the National Assembly on Wednesday, News.am reported.
Azerbaijan must agree to the position of the international community that the Karabakh people should determine Nagorno-Karabakh’s legal status by holding a plebiscite, Nalbandian told MPs.
He said that the issue was under negotiation and that the Azerbaijani authorities should prepare their public for it.
Nalbandian also said in parliament yesterday that Armenia was waiting for a response from the international community on what he described as Azerbaijan’s military rhetoric.
Nagorno-Karabakh is legally part of Azerbaijan's territory. Azerbaijan's position is that a referendum on the status of any part of its territory has to be held in the country as a whole.
A referendum on Karabakh's status would come towards the end of the settlement process under the principles proposed by the mediators, the OSCE Minsk Group.
The principles, often known as the Basic Prinicples or the updated Madrid principles, include Armenia's return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, an interim status for Karabakh providing guarantees of security and self-governance and the future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will.
The conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied a swathe of Azerbaijani territory since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
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