On November 3, businessman Ruben Vardanyan, who in October accepted an offer to become State Minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh, said in an interview with "Kommersant" that the Armenian authorities cannot make decisions for the republic. He drew attention to the fact that negotiations on the settlement of the conflict over [the separatist] Nagorno-Karabakh and its future are going on without representatives of the [de-facto] republic. The businessman called this approach unacceptable.

"The leadership of the Republic of Armenia has no mandate for Nagorno-Karabakh to decide how they will live," Vardanyan stressed. According to the businessman, the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh is a very important element of deterrence. "And the preservation of trilateral relations between those who guarantee security, the people who live on Karabakh land, and our neighbor is the only possible negotiation model," he added.

"Armenia should discuss relations with Azerbaijan and the delimitation and demarcation of borders, but the fate of Karabakh is not decided there," the entrepreneur stressed. "We need to show with all our actions that Karabakh can and should be reckoned with," he urged.

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