ArmInfo. Azerbaijan is seeking to legitimate its large-scale aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh and the Republic of Armenia, Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Recalling the statement by the RA Security Council of March 28, 2022, which emphasizes Azerbaijan's intention to launch new attacks against Nagorno-Karabakh, he said:
"That statement gave rise to additional questions, and I would like to make a number of remarks to clarify the situation in the region both to the Armenian public and to the international community.
"Before, during and after the 44-day war Azerbaijan implemented a policy of justifying its military attack on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
"And Azerbaijan is obviously seeking to legitimate its large-scale attack against Nagorno-Karabakh, and my goal today is to demonstrate the illegitimacy of this policy," Mr Pashinyan said.
"The Azerbaijani sources are actively disseminating fake news in the West that Armenia has allegedly provided its SU-30 SM aircraft to Ukraine. These are outrageous lies and our aircraft have not a single time left Armenia since they arrived," Armenia's premier said.
As to the claims that Armenia serves as a transit country for mercenaries going to Ukraine, Mr Pashinyan said: "Any person with the least information at his disposal knows that Armenia, which suffered from mercenaries involved in the war against it two years ago, can never help others to hire mercenaries. That is absurd."
"And the topic Azerbaijan is using most to escalate regional tensions is that of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace agreement. Azerbaijan insists that Armenia leave the question unanswered. However, this information is false, as I have repeatedly stated publicly that Armenia is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan," Mr Pashinyan said.
Refuting Azerbaijan's claims that Armenia did not respond to its 5-point proposal, he said:
"At the government's last meeting live I discussed the issue in detail and stated that on March 10 a 5-point proposal was sent and four days later, with two of them days off, we responded in written form. We sent our response the same way we received the proposals. We also stated publicly that we did not find anything unacceptable to us in Azerbaijan's proposals. The foreign minister stated that on March 21, 2022," Mr Pashinyan said.
The proposals were handed over to Armenia by one of the OSCE MG co-chairing countries.
"This answer means that the principle of mutual recognition of territorial integrity and inviolability of borders is acceptable to Armenia. So the question is why Azerbaijan regards it as absence of response."
"The reason is that in its public and diplomatic statements Armenia emphasized the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians' rights in the context of rapprochement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"However, Azerbaijan states that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem has been solved. But what about the Armenians' rights there?
"This questions remains unanswered. And that is why the international community is constantly emphasizing the need for a comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which we can see at different international forums. Being aware that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem exists and will remain high on the international agenda, Azerbaijan is seeking to close he issue instead of settling it. And this process was started in the village of Parukh, Askeran region, which is showing a clear trend toward continuation. In fact, Azerbaijan is seeking to deport all the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, thus considering the issue closed," Mr Pashinyan said.
Instead of being concerned about the rights and security guarantees for the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, official Baku is doing the opposite by claiming no Nagorno-Karabakh exists.
"This is the reason for the official Azerbaijani circles' aggressive reaction to the international community's use of the name Nagorno-Karabakh. However, the use of this name is absolutely legal and logical, including because the trilateral statement of November 9 clearly uses the terms Nagorno-Karabakh and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. And the Azerbaijani president put his signature to the document as well," Mr Pashinyan said.