Any referendum on Karabakh's status would be premature: Peter Semneby

EU would consider any referendum to decide the statues of Nagorno Karabakh at this moment as premature, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby told Russian news agency Interfax.

"Any referendum over the status of Nagorno Karabakh may occur only after a long process. Presently, it is necessary to agree upon the principles over how the process should unfold to ensure guarantees for all the parties," said Semneby.

Mr Semneby recalled that the principles of the settlement have already been announced at the highest level by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairpersons.

"I think that this is a perfect basis for the settlement, and the EU is calling on both sides to be based on that," said he, adding that there is already an outline which may be a viable solution. What remains to do, according to him, is to try and convince the parties to accept those principles.
 

Further Mr Semneby admitted also that the Armenia-Turkey relations also affect the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.