In the current conditions, international presence on the ground and a  clear attitude towards aggression and the aggressor state are as  important as never before - Mirzoyan

ArmInfo. On December 1, the 29th OSCE Ministerial Council was held in  Lodz city, Poland, where Ararat Mirzoyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia participated and delivered remarks.  

As the press service of the RA MFA reports, in  his Speech Mirzoyan noted, in part:  "Distinguished colleagues, At  the outset I would like to thank the Polish OSCE Chairmanship for  leading the organization during the year and organizing this meeting.

This year marked with enormous challenges for European security  architecture. We continued to witness violation of our commitments,  including the decalogue of the Helsinki final act.  Regrettably,  South Caucasus was one of the regions, where we face continuous use  of force and threat of use of force. Our neighbor Azerbaijan not only  has been continuing its high and warmongering rhetoric, but also  military aggression against the sovereignty and territorial integrity  of Armenia. 

On September 13-14, this year  Azerbaijan unleashed unprovoked  aggression occupying around 140 square km of the sovereign territory  of Armenia. This has been the 3rd large scale offensive against  Armenia since the signing of the Trilateral statement of November 9,  2020. This aggression, which resulted in 233 of casualties including  among civilians, targeted settlements and civilian infrastructure,  internally displaced thousands of the citizens of Armenia and caused  serious economic and environmental damage. The worst forms of war  crimes with extrajudicial killings and torture of Armenian military  personal including women and men alike have been an inherent feature  of the Azerbaijani aggression. 

We would like to express our appreciation to those partners who do  not shy away  to point  the aggressor and raise their voice on the  need to duly prosecute the war crimes and punish the executors. It is  equally important to demand the complete withdrawal of the  Azerbaijani armed forces from the sovereign territories of Armenia.  Their continued presence in internationally recognized territories of  Armenia is a serious challenge to fragile peace and stability in our  region.

Moreover, during the same year Azerbaijan continued its provocative  and aggressive actions against Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in March  and August this year. In blatant violation of Trilateral Statements,  Azerbaijan in fact ethnically cleansed yet another settlement of NK  and tried to impede the functioning of the Lachin corridor, which is  the "way of life" for more than 120 thousand people. 

Ladies and gentleman, Under the current circumstances it is difficult  to contemplate achieving peace in a single part of the OSCE region.  However, the Government of Armenia has shown political will and has  been taking decisive steps to open a new era of peace and stability  in the South Caucasus.  Despite the frequent provocations from the  Azerbaijani side, we did not stop our talks on normalization of our  relations, unblocking all transport and economic links, delimitation  and border security. Let me be clear here: Armenia is ready to  proceed to unblocking of communications once Azerbaijan agrees that  all roads should operate in full respect of our sovereignty,  territorial integrity and national legislation. 

Delimitation process of our state border should not turn into an  exercise of putting forward territorial claims against Armenia and  thus should be carried out on maps holding legal bases. In this  regard, the agreements reached in Prague and Sochi this year,  particularly the commitment to realize the delimitation based on the  UN charter and 1991 Almaty declaration will foster this process. 

We believe that the issue of rights and security of the people of  Nagorno-Karabakh should also be comprehensively addressed. These  issues have always been at the heart of the peace process led by the  OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.  Dear colleagues,

I would like to use this opportunity to express Armenia's  appreciation and further support to missions deployed by EU and OSCE  to assess and monitor the situation on the ground. In the current  circumstances when Azerbaijan is covering up its use of force against  Armenia by initiating blame games, the international presence on the  ground and clear attitude towards aggression and aggressor state are  as important as never before.  

We continue to believe that the OSCE, the OSCE MG Co-Chairing  countries, the OSCE mechanisms with their accumulated knowledge and  experience can and should contribute to promoting stability and  establishing lasting and durable peace in our region.  Thank you."