Saturday, May 28 2022 16:57

ArmInfo.The OSCE Minsk Group was not created by Azerbaijan, but by the international community, therefore, Azerbaijan cannot disband it or consider its mission  completed, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan said in an interview with  Armenpress.  

Below is the full text. 

Question: On May 27, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated  that there is no Nagorno-Karabakh, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is  settled, and there is no OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. What can  you say on this occasion?

Answer: We can present a valid document signed by the President of  Azerbaijan, which states that there is Nagorno-Karabakh. That is the  trilateral statement of November 9, 2020. By signing that document,  the President of Azerbaijan acknowledged the existence of  Nagorno-Karabakh and this is an irreversible fact.  We can point to  the official statements made by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing  countries, in which they reaffirm their commitment as Co-Chairs. Over  the past week alone the US and France delivered such statements.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship was highlighted in the joint  statement by the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of  Russia issued on April 19 of this year. During the Summit of the OSCE  Ministerial Council in Stockholm held in December 2021, dozens of  Foreign Ministers stressed the exclusive role of the OSCE Minsk Group  Co-Chairmanship in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process.

The OSCE Minsk Group was not created by Azerbaijan, but by the  international community, therefore, Azerbaijan can not disband it or  consider its mission completed. The same international community  today states that the OSCE Minsk Group exists, and, as I mentioned,  it states that there is a Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that needs to be  resolved. This is also stated in the above-mentioned statement by the  Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Russia. The US  Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia stated this  quite recently, expressing the official position of the United  States. Moreover, the same statement emphasizes that the issue of the  status of Nagorno-Karabakh is on the agenda, and the right of the  Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination remains in force.

By the way, Armenia has never had and does not have territorial  claims against Azerbaijan. The Nagorno- Karabakh conflict is a matter  of rights and is perceived as such by the international community.  That is evident from the meeting in Brussels. We have stated that the  page of the war is turned for us, there is an issue that should be  resolved through political and diplomatic means.

Question: Ilham Aliyev also stated that an agreement has been reached  in Brussels on a corridor passing through Meghri which will connect  Azerbaijan to Nakhijevan.

Answer: We have repeatedly stated the position of Armenia. Let us  repeat again. The existence of any corridor inside the territory of  Armenia is ruled out. This is not even up to discussion. Our  discussions are exclusively about opening and unblocking roads,  transport, and economic communications. As for the routes, we have  said that before clarifying the routes, we must first agree on the  legal regulations for the civilian and cargo passages of Azerbaijan  through our territory and the civilian and cargo passages of Armenia  through Azerbaijan (including Nakhichevan). However, it is obvious  that one branch of the railway will pass through Meghri, Ordubad,  Julfa, and Yeraskh. There is no agreement on the route of the  highways at this moment.