STEPANAKERT, JULY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Due to the recent developments around the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement, the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement on July 15, which read: "The NKR stance on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement is stable. It is impossible to achieve the conflict settlement, ignoring the existing reality. Any attempts to return the Nagorno Karabakh Republic to the past are not only counterproductive, but are also fraught with new escalation of the conflict. Real progress at the negotiations is possible only under the Karabakh party's equal participation in all the stages of the negotiation process. No agreement regarding the interests, fate, and future of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic can be adopted without the participation of its people and leadership, which bears the principal responsibility for it. We hope that all the actors interested in the peaceful settlement will prevent any violation of the status quo in the region caused by the intensification of the negotiation process on the basis of the current settlement wording. Proceeding from the above mentioned, we consider it required to reset the distorted negotiation process, to return the NKR to the negotiation table as an equal party to the negotiation process, and to transform the basic principles of the settlement."

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