“The referendum in Southern Sudan cannot be a precedent for the Nagorno Karabakh Republic as it is being held with the consent of the mother country – Khartoum. In the past 20 years some other countries gained independence in this way, in particular Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia and East Timor from Indonesia”, Chairman of the NKR Public Council on Foreign Policy and Security Masis Mailian was quoted by the Regnum news agency as saying. “The Republic of Azerbaijan continues denying the right of Karabakh people to self-determination and free development, so the recognition of Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia is a precedent for Karabakh. As is well known, the international recognition of these countries took place against the will of the former mother countries. As regards the referendum as a procedure for self-determination, this democratic mechanism was successfully used in NKR as long ago as December 1991, and later the people of the NKR have confirmed their commitment to independent statehood building in a direct or indirect way about ten times – at various republican elections and the referendum on adoption of the Constitution of the NKR. Therefore, Karabakh needs not a new referendum, but an international recognition of the outcome of the expression of the Karabakh people’s will which has already happened,” Masis Mailian said. Minster of foreign affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbanian told reporters on 14 January: “Most of 190 nations who are members of the United Nations Organization can serve as precedents for Nagorno Karabakh in the process of gaining independence.”

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