Wednesday, February 21 2018 22:04

ArmInfo. Armenia has repeatedly stated that it will continue its efforts together with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries aimed at an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This, in Brussels during a speech at the Foreign Relations Commission of the European Parliament, said Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Armenian MFA noted particularly the following: "That European  Parliament adopted a resolution which stipulated that  Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence following similar  declarations made by the former Soviet Republics. Indeed,  Nagorno-Karabakh has never been part of independent Azerbaijan.   However, the leadership of Azerbaijan continues to claim  Nagorno-Karabakh, but not only. On February 8th the President of this  country declared that different regions of Armenia, including its  capital Yerevan are historic lands of Azerbaijan, where Azerbaijanis  must return and that it is Baku's political and strategic goal. I  will leave to your consideration if this is a territorial claim  towards a neighboring country, saber- rattling, or something else.  But, it is well known that Baku's belligerence on use of force and  threat of force have many times turned into real actions.

In April 2016 Azerbaijan again unleashed large scale military  offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh that was accompanied by the gross  violations of the international humanitarian law, including killing  of children, women, elderly people, mutilation of the corpses,  beheadings of captured soldiers in the style used by notorious  terrorist organizations. Obviously, this aggression has caused a  serious damage to the peace process. Two summits were organized by  the mediator Co-Chair countries - USA, Russia and France in the  aftermath of aggression, in Vienna and St. Petersburg aimed at  stabilizing the situation and creating conducive conditions for the  advancement of the peace process. However, Azerbaijan backtracked  from the agreements reached at these Summits and refused to implement  them. This concerns first and foremost to the creation of the  mechanism for investigation of the ceasefire violations and the  expansion of the monitoring capacities of the team of the Personal  Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, and of course the  strict adherence to the trilateral ceasefire agreements of 1994-1995.  There was a one and half year long interval between the high level  meetings before the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met again in  Geneva last October. The joint statement of the Ministers of Foreign  Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan issued together with the Co-Chairs  after the Summit reflected what Armenia has been long advocating for:  to intensify the negotiation process and to take additional steps to  reduce tensions on the Line of Contact, meaning the realization of  the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg Summits.

It is not just Armenia that strongly advocates for the implementation  of these agreements. The Co-Chairs have continuously stressed the  necessity of respecting commitments reached at the Summits and the  last such statement was made only days ago. However, Azerbaijan fails  to respect the agreements. The recent most illustrative case was the  meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Krakow  in January, where was agreed in principle to implement the expansion  of the Office of the Personal Representative. Armenia and the  Co-Chairs issued almost identical statements reflecting this  agreement while Azerbaijan has not made any reference to it either  after the meeting or up to now. When the Co- Chairs were back to the  region few days ago, Azerbaijan again failed to honor the  implementation of the agreement on the expansion.

It is important for the international community to speak in one voice  with the Co-Chair countries to support their approaches with the aim  of advancing the peace process. All conflicts are different and it is  not possible to put them together or address in the same cluster.  There are diverse approaches of the international community in  dealing with the different conflicts. In the case of the  Nagorno-Karabakh peace process the Co-Chair countries have reiterated  on numerous occasions, including at the level of presidents, that  three principles of the international law form the basis of the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, namely the non-use of force or  threat of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and  self- determination of peoples. These principles were elaborated by  the Co-Chairs as an integrated whole and, as they stated, any attempt  to select one of them at the expense of others would make it  impossible to come to a settlement. All OSCE participating States,  including Azerbaijan, endorsed these principles of the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution during the December 2009  Ministerial Council in Athens. The European Parliament has supported  these principles in a number of resolutions. So did the European  Union, including in the Comprehensive and Enhanced partnership  Agreement with Armenia. This is what the entire international  community endorses.

Any deviation from this compromise language proposed by the impartial  mediators would damage the concerted efforts of the international  community, would undermine the work of the Co-Chair countries, would  send a false signal of disunity that may be exploited by the enemies  of peace and eventually may derail the peace talks, open the door for  new hostilities. Therefore, this issue should be taken with extreme  caution. The position and language of those who have declared their  support to the Co-Chairs approaches could not differ from one  document to another. It should be made clear once and forever that  there is no alternative to the negotiated solution proposed by the  Minsk Group Co-Chairs, including the three principles of  international law suggested by them as the basis for the conflict  resolution.

Armenia has continuously reiterated that will continue its efforts  together with the Co-Chair countries towards exclusively peaceful  settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Nalbandian stated.