YEREVAN (Sputnik) — The Armenian government on Thursday reviewed the bill on recognition of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and sent it to the parliament, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Thursday.
"The conclusion [of the government on the bill] has been conditioned by discussions between Armenia and Karabakh taking into account external and internal factors," Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said presenting the document.
On April 2, tensions escalated in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani breakaway region with a predominantly Armenian population. Baku and Yerevan accused each other of provoking the hostilities, however, the sides succeeded in reaching a ceasefire agreement on April 5, which has been followed by near-daily reports of truce violations.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988, when the autonomous region left the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic and proclaimed independence after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The secession triggered a war that lasted until a Russia-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1994.
