Azerbaijan de jure recognized the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian businessman German Sterligov wrote on VKontakte social network.

After dozens of years of not recognizing Karabakh as an independent country, it was hard for the leadership to state Nagorno-Karabakh “is not a territory of Azerbaijan”, Sterligov said.

“Azerbaijani legislation provides for filing an international arrest warrant and or a wanted warrant by Interpol against a person who committed the crime in the territory of Azerbaijan, only if the ‘offender’ is outside the territory of Azerbaijan,” Sterligov explained.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani authorities made a statement saying “German Sterligov is on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh” and issued an international arrest warrant against him.

“Thus, Azerbaijan publicly stated Nagorno-Karabakh is not a territory of Azerbaijan. Of course, this form of recognition of  Karabakh provoked by difficult political conditions was made discreetly and unobtrusively in order to save the face for the Azerbaijani society which is not yet ready for this wise step,” Russian businessman wrote.

He welcomed the decision by Azerbaijani leadership and expressed satisfaction that he became a reason for de jure recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh.