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Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) has never been a part of independent Azerbaijan, the head of the Armenian second President Robert Kocharyan’s office, political scientist Viktor Soghomonyan said at the Yerevan session of the Lazarev Club on Saturday.

The expert stressed that Artsakh voted for independence in compliance with the norms of international law.

“Nagorno-Karabakh must be an independent state to decide itself whether to remain independent or to unite with Armenia. This is the scale of possible compromises,” he said.

Soghomonyan touched upon the topic of Artsakh’s withdrawal from the talks.

“They say that it happened when the Karabakh representatives were holding top posts in Armenia. but it isn’t so. Back in 1997, Zhirayr Liparityan announced that Armenia had agreed that Karabakh be suspended from the talks and the negotiations be held between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to make them more productive.

“From that moment Karabakh stopped participating in the talks which undermined the normal format of the negotiations,” he said, adding that Artsakh’s return to the negotiating table will reflect the real picture of the conflict.