YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS: Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic has issued a statement related to the Scottish independence referendum, Armenpress reports.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh Republic) welcomes the conduction of the Scottish independence referendum.

Irrespective of the results, Scotland’s referendum became one more precedent that enriched the international practice of application of self-determination right of peoples and confirmed the obvious fact that recognition of peoples’ right to self-determination is considered to be a norm in the democratic society.

On this occasion we consider it necessary to remind that it is encroachment of the self-determination right of Artsakh people by Azerbaijan that has brought to mass violations of human rights and deportation of the Armenian population from Azerbaijan and further large-scale aggression toward NKR by Azerbaijan, as a result of which tens of thousands people were killed and hundreds of thousands became refugees.

International recognition of self-determination of Artsakh people, realized in 1991 and confirmed in 2006, will provide continuation of the peaceful process and will afford an opportunity to focus the efforts on working out relevant mechanisms and conditions for peaceful coexistence of 2 independent states – Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan,” the statement circulated by the NKR Foreign Affairs Ministry Information Department reads.