ArmInfo. The European Court has never made a decision that Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, the same applies to the resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, which are related to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Armenia's Representative for International Legal Affairs, stated during a hearing at the International Court of Justice, where Azerbaijan's claim against Armenia was considered.
"The UN Security Council called on Armenia to continue to exert influence to ensure the implementation of norms by the Armenians of Artsakh, but never indicated that Armenia is an aggressor or occupier country," he emphasized. Kirakosyan noted that the UN Security Council appealed to local Armenian forces with a call on the parties to resume the negotiation process within the Minsk format to resolve the conflict.
Referring to the statement of the Azerbaijani president, he noted that the latter said that "war is inevitable, and the OSCE Minsk Group is dead." In addition, it was Ilham Aliyev who stated that Azerbaijan started the second Artsakh war, and the Azerbaijani representative in the Court did not deny this. Kirakosyan emphasized that Armenia was always ready to ensure the return of refugees on the principles of reciprocity, but it was Azerbaijan that abandoned the Minsk Group format. The representative of Armenia also drew attention to the fact that the basic principles proposed by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group concerned not only the return of refugees, but also the return of the territories around Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control.
According to him, the co-chairs also called on Nagorno Karabakh to be granted an intermediate status that would provide guarantees of security, autonomy and a corridor that would connect Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia. And the final legal status must be determined in the future through an expression of will with international guarantees, including the activities of peacekeepers.
Armenia's Representative for International Legal Affairs also touched upon the accusations from the Azerbaijani side that Armenia allegedly "did not provide access to Nagorno-Karabakh to UN departments and other international organizations during the 'occupation'." In this regard, Kirakosyan noted that such restrictions have never been imposed by Armenia and Artsakh, moreover, the Azerbaijani side did not provide any evidence of its accusation.
"Actually, Azerbaijan closed and continues to prohibit the entry of UN representatives to Nagorno- Karabakh. In addition, they refused to cooperate with the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in matters of protecting the environment and water reservoirs," Kirakosyan said.
Back in December 2020, after the 44-day Artsakh war, the UNESCO Executive Council decided that a fact- finding mission should be sent to Nagorno-Karabakh to monitor the situation on site and the condition of cultural heritage monuments. However, to this day the mission cannot enter Nagorno-Karabakh due to the position of the Azerbaijani side. The destruction of temples and other historical-cultural heritage objects, as well as acts of vandalism, can be recorded thanks to satellite images of international organizations specializing in the preservation and protection of cultural heritage, as well as through photos and videos posted on various social media platforms by Azerbaijani users.
In particular, days earlier it became known that Azerbaijan destroyed the Armenian cemetery of Ghazanchetsots in the city of Shushi in occupied Artsakh. Even earlier, it also became known that Azerbaijan had destroyed the village of Karin Tak near Shushi.