Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict has never been considered Azerbaijan`s  internal affair - Sergey Ghazaryan 

ArmInfo.Below is Foreign Minister of the Republic of Artsakh Sergey Ghazaryan's interview with  the Artsakhpress news agency. 

Question: How would you comment on the statement made by the  President of Azerbaijan on 18 April that the Armenians living in  Karabakh should either accept Azerbaijani citizenship or look for  another place of residence?

Answer: This is not the first time that the President of Azerbaijan  has made statements that reveal the true intentions of Azerbaijan to  ethnically cleanse Artsakh and expel its indigenous population from  their historical homeland. The blockade imposed on Artsakh by the  authoritarian leadership of Azerbaijan for more than four months is  just one of the tools for the implementation of those criminal plans.  Through coercion, the threat and use of force, Azerbaijan is  essentially trying to force the people of Artsakh to accept the  illegal demands of Azerbaijan, which contradict, inter alia, the  peremptory norms of general international law.

The fact that the leadership of Azerbaijani is no longer hiding their  criminal intentions demonstrates the insufficiency of the  international response and engagement in efforts to end the ongoing  blockade of Artsakh and prevent the genocidal intentions of  Azerbaijan. In fact, the Azerbaijani authorities, acting in an  environment of absolute impunity and permissiveness, are increasingly  expanding the scale and geography of their crimes committed against  the people of Artsakh and Armenia.

In this regard, I would like to emphasise that States, both  individually and collectively, have an obligation to take effective  and decisive measures to prevent the most serious crimes, primarily  genocide and crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing and  forced displacement. At the same time, the direct responsibility for  preventing such crimes rests with the UN Security Council, a body  that not only has the appropriate mandate, but also the necessary  tools to stop the criminal intentions of Azerbaijan against Artsakh  and its people.

In this context, it is regrettable that despite the commitment to  prevent such serious crimes, representatives of some international  organisations and states make political efforts that indirectly  promote Azerbaijan's illegitimate position and encourage their  genocidal policy. We believe that such an approach by international  actors, particularly those involved in the settlement of the  Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict and normalisation of Armenia-Azerbaijan  relations, is not only unacceptable and counterproductive, but also  fraught with unpredictable consequences for the entire region.  

Question: How would you comment on the statement of the Azerbaijani  President that Karabakh is an internal affair of Azerbaijan?

Answer: The Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict has never been considered as  an internal affair of Azerbaijan, neither during the existence of the  Soviet Union, nor in the subsequent period of the formation of  independent states on the territory of the former Soviet Union. This  is evidenced by the fact that after Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),  Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence, the international  community created a special mechanism for the settlement of the  Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict - the Minsk Process.  The decision to  create an international format to determine the final political  status of Artsakh indicated that the community of States did not  recognise Artsakh as part of independent Azerbaijan. In turn,  Azerbaijan's consent to be involved in the Minsk Process was also a  recognition of the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was not an  internal matter of Azerbaijan.

In addition, the Armenian side has always emphasised that the  Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict is primarily a matter of human rights  and freedoms, and first of all, the right of the people of Artsakh to  self- determination. In this sense, according to international  obligations, including those assumed by the state of Azerbaijan,  issues of human rights and freedoms are of direct and legitimate  interest to all States and are not exclusively an internal matter of  any one State. There are many examples in the world where certain  countries and international organisations have directly intervened in  conflict situations to prevent genocide, massacres and other serious  human rights violations. In situations where human rights and  freedoms, including the collective rights of peoples, are  systematically and grossly violated, only intervention of the  international community and the free exercise of the right of peoples  to self-determination can ensure a peaceful and civilized resolution  of such situations, without resorting to the use of force, violence,  forced deportation and ethnic cleansing.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing blockade, massive violations of  the individual and collective rights of the people of Artsakh, and  other aggressive actions, the efforts of the official Baku to present  the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict as their internal affair are a clear  attempt by the leadership of Azerbaijan to get carte blanche from the  international community to continue the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh  and expulsion of its indigenous people from their native lands. We  consider Aliyev's ultimatum statements and threats to unleash a new  war to be absolutely unacceptable. The people and authorities of  Artsakh remain committed to the path of freedom and independence they  have chosen, and no threats or difficulties created by Azerbaijan can  make us turn off this path.

Question: Are negotiations between Artsakh and Azerbaijan possible?

Answer: The Republic of Artsakh has been and continues to be  committed to the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh  conflict. We believe that lasting peace in the region can and should  be achieved through negotiations and on the basis of mutually  acceptable approaches. Unilateral coercive measures can, of course,  contain the issue, but this will be temporary, as evidenced by the  70-year existence of Artsakh within the Azerbaijan SSR. The political  issues of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement should be  discussed in an agreed and internationally recognised negotiation  format based on the equal rights of the parties and in the presence  of strong international guarantees for the implementation of their  commitments.

As for the addressing of urgent technical and humanitarian issues,  such contacts between the parties began after the ceasefire  established by the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020. On 11  April, the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh, through the  Russian peacekeeping mission, sent a proposal to the Azerbaijani side  to hold a meeting at the place of deployment and with the mediation  of the command of the Russian peacekeeping forces to discuss urgent  humanitarian issues. However, there was no response from Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has been trying to politicise these contacts in order to  eliminate the need for an international mechanism for the settlement  of the conflict. By rejecting the international mechanism of dialogue  with the official Stepanakert, Azerbaijan is trying to avoid the  implementation of possible agreements. Involvement of the  international community in the dialogue between Artsakh and  Azerbaijan is the only way to guarantee a comprehensive settlement of  the conflict.

Question: What is your position on the assertion of the Azerbaijani  side that, according to the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, the borders  between the union republics are considered state borders and,  therefore, Karabakh is recognised as an integral part of Azerbaijan?

Answer: First of all, it should be noted that the Alma-Ata  Declaration has never been considered as a political and legal basis  for the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict or the  determination of the status of Artsakh. This is indicated by the fact  that by the time this declaration was adopted, negotiations on the  Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement had been underway for several  months already within the framework of the Zheleznovodsk process,  through the mediation of the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan. After  the signing of the relevant declaration, the conflict settlement  process continued with the mediation of Russia, the CIS, and the  CSCE/OSCE. As part of the negotiation process, international  mediators developed the basic principles and elements of the  settlement, according to which the status of Artsakh was to be  determined through a legally binding expression of will of its  population. Thereby, the right of the people of Artsakh to  self-determination was recognised and a mechanism was proposed for  its implementation. Thus, the parties involved in the conflict and  the international mediators were not guided by the Alma-Ata  Declaration when developing the basic principles of the settlement.

Moreover, the Alma-Ata Declaration, like any international document,  must be guided by the objectives and principles of the UN Charter and  other universal norms of international law. Therefore, the Alma-Ata  Declaration contains the same principles and norms as the UN Charter,  including the right to self- determination.

In this regard, we consider it necessary to emphasise that in case of  massive and serious human rights violations and discriminatory  policies, the right to secession based on the principle of  self-determination of peoples prevails over the principle of  territorial integrity of states. This formula, in particular, is  described in the Declaration on Principles of International Law  concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States, and is  also enshrined in the jurisprudence of various countries.