ArmInfo.Baku reacted to the statement of Armenian Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Paris Forum.
''Hopefully Acting Prime Minister of Armenia realizes that his statement at the Paris Peace Forum deeply contradicts the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia, which violated the fundamental principles of international law, especially the principle of non- use of force and ''occupied the territories'' of Azerbaijan and deprived hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis historically living in Nagorno-Karabakh of their fundamental right - the right to live in their homelands,"
"Does the exercise of right of self-determination mean conduct of ethnic cleansing with regard to other ethnic groups living in the same area? Does the supremacy of international law mean ''military occupation of territories'' and imposing a fait-accompli solution? Acting Head of the Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Leyla Abdullayeva asked.
Abdullayeva also noted that the same fundamental principles that Mr. Pashinyan mentions in his statement clearly answer the above questions; it's enough simply to read the UN Charter and Helsinki Final Act. She also noted that "Addressing the international Forums and speaking of peace and better future is good, but the most important thing is not stating only, but acting in accordance with what have been said. Better future for our region and Armenia itself closely linked with ending the ''occupation of the Azerbaijani territories ''by Armed Forces of Armenia and return of all IDP's to their homelands''.
To note, Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is in Paris on a working visit, attended the Paris Peace Conference. The Forum is being held within the framework of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the World War I Ceasefire, the press service of the Prime Minister informs. "Distinguished Heads of State and Government, Ladies and Gentlemen, We have gathered here to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One. This is an event of exceptional significance called to pay tribute to collective memory and to articulate our common message of peace. Today, we, as the leaders of the nations, which participated in that war, should first of all speak about the lessons learnt from the tragedy of World War One. When a state wages a war or is tempted to solve problems by military means, it believes in its own strength and victory. Yet, World War One became a global tragedy for all the peoples engaged and resulted in the destruction of its mastermind states. There is a belief, that from the geopolitical and military perspective there are always winners and losers in wars. However, from the human perspective, no one ever wins. Wars bring only loss, misery and devastation. And regardless of our common efforts and appeals to learn from the previous mistakes, these lessons are easily forgotten. Even though one hundred years ago, the humanity realized the need to ban weapon of mass destruction, regrettably it has not prevented the creation of new generations of arms. It was during World War One that the Entente powers for the first time ever used the definition "crimes against humanity and civilization", thus condemning the Ottoman rulers for the extermination of 1,5 million Armenians. Later, this horrendous crime was to be termed the first genocide of the 20th century. Nonetheless, only few decades later the humankind went through Holocaust, genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, genocides of the Christians and Yezidis in the Middle East, violence against the Rohingya people. As part of the lessons, learnt from the war the right of the peoples to self-determination was set out in Wilson's 14 points. Later on it was included in the UN Charter, Helsinki Final Act, and became a basis for the independence of around half of the modern states. As a result of World War One, the people of the world legally established the right to master their own destiny through the expression of free will. Here, in France I cannot but stress that just days ago, France has clearly reiterated its principled position on this issue: the people of New Caledonia were given the opportunity to conduct a referendum. Painfully, this right is being exercised selectively. This is why, the decades-long struggle of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to determine their destiny has not received its proper legal solution. In the 21th century it is absolutely unacceptable that people's mere desire to exercise its right to self-determination may turn into an existential menace.