Armenia suggests creating demilitarized zone in Nagorno-Karabakh

YEREVAN, November 10. /ARKA/. Armenia suggested creating a demilitarized zone around Nagorno-Karabakh with international guarantees, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Thursday.

He said the idea was proposed by the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh and he conveyed it to Russian and Azerbaijani presidents when they met October 31 in the southern Russian city of Sochi.

He said if this proposal is accepted (by Azerbaijan), Nagorno-Karabakh may not need a Defense Army of the current size.

He also denied Baku's claims that Armenian armed forces are deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh. He said the Nagorno-Karabakh defense army is made up of local residents and its goal is to protect the Karabakh population.

'Azerbaijan rejected the proposal to send an observation mission to Nagorno-Karabakh to clarify this issue, which I made on October 6 in Prague," Pashinyan explained.

Pashinyan also said that Azerbaijani troop must withdraw from several villages in Karabakh, which are in the zone of Russian peacekeepers' responsibility.

Pashinyan also added that an updated proposal has been submitted to Azerbaijan suggesting to demilitarize the Armenian-Azerbaijani border zone and create a 3-kilometer demilitarized zone on both sides.

"In any case, I must state that the Azerbaijani troops must withdraw from all the occupied parts of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, and this position will never and in no way be changed," the prime minister stressed. -0-