Thursday, May 18 2023 22:20

ArmInfo.On May 18, the delegation led by the RA NA President Alen Simonyan took part in the  Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) in Minsk, the press service of the RA NA reports.

Before the Council Meeting, the President of the Republic of Belarus  Alexander Lukashenko met with the heads of the delegations of the  Member States. The President of Belarus spoke about the necessity of  the formation of the new system of the international relations which  will be based on the universally recognized norms and principles of  the international law. "Minsk intends to work in raising cohesion of  the CSTO States. The strengthening of the organization, the ensuring  of security in its zone of responsibility is possibly existing after  the solutions of contradictions," he said.  After the meeting the  heads of parliaments laid a wreath and flowers at the Victory Square  in memory of those fallen in the Great Patriotic War.

The speech by the RA NA President Alen Simonyan at the Council  Meeting of the CSTO PA is fully presented:

"Dear Vyacheslav Volodin, Dear Vladimir Andreychenko, Participants of  the Collegial Meeting, I welcome everybody at the Council Meeting of  the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty  Organization (CSTO PA).  I thank you, Vladimir Pavlovich and our  Belarus colleagues for warm reception and the organization of the  Assembly events.  I also welcome the new Secretary General of the  organization Tasmagambetov and wish him effective work in his  responsible post.

Colleagues, I would like to mention with satisfaction that the works  continue by the Parliamentary Assembly on legally supporting the  activity of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, elaboration  of the proposals regarding the coordination of the legislative  activity of national parliaments aimed at the implementation of the  goals and problems of the organization. There is no need to enumerate  all elaborated proposals, the model laws and statements which refer  to all poles of the CSTO activity.

It is also important to understand to what extent we are adoptive to  common problems.  And when we speak about the positive experience of  our work, we should clearly remember that the mutual respect, the  aspiration of taking into consideration each other's interests, the  elaboration of consensus approaches, the support of the allies in  complicated situation for reaching concrete results is the basis, on  which our organization is built.

Colleagues, The Council Meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly takes  place in a period, when we stand before serious threats and  challenges of the security. The world is at a crossroad of hard  geopolitical events and transformations, which have irreversible  consequences for many countries. And the zone of responsibility of  the Collective Security also is not an exception.

It is known what events happened last year, and now I would like to  provide information about the situation in the South Caucasus. The  situation is rather tense. Despite all agreements, Azerbaijan  continues the policy of threatening the territorial integrity of the  Republic of Armenia, heats the situation up on the border with  Armenia, in Nagorno Karabakh and in the Lachin Corridor.

After the illegal false-environmental blocking of the Lachin Corridor  for 5 months, at the end of April Azerbaijan already officially  blockaded Nagorno Karabakh. The decision of Baku on setting up a  checkpoint in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping  troops in the Lachin Corridor is a gross violation of the trilateral  statement of November 9, 2020 and decision having legal compulsory  force of the UN International Court of Justice in February of this  year.

It's almost half a year that 120.000 Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh  live in full blockade, in conditions of acute shortage of first  necessity goods, medicine. Time and again the authorities of  Azerbaijan restrict the move of the International Committee of the  Red Cross vehicles and the movement of the ill people through the  corridor.

In the context of the abovementioned, the real targeted statements  and steps by the allies and colleagues, according to the restoration  of the regime of the Lachin Corridor operation in accordance with the  obligations of the trilateral statement and the principles of the  international law, in the conditions of security and protection from  illegal actions for regulating the life of Nagorno Karabakh are  important for us.  Colleagues,

We follow the attempts of destroying the Armenian rich culture and  eliminating the traces of Armenian identity by Azerbaijan. It is  important to mention that the UN International Court of Justice also  approved the availability of the threat of causing irreversible  damage to the Armenians' rights within the framework of the  International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial  Discrimination (ICERD).

Until now Baku rejects returning Armenian prisoners of war and the  civilians being held as hostages conducting mock trials against them.

Colleagues, I will refer to the process of regulation of relations  between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  We repeatedly stated about readiness  of Armenia on signing peace treaty and reciprocally recognizing the  territorial integrity. However, Azerbaijan continues taking  aggressive position.

A few days ago, the armed forces of Azerbaijan once again opened fire  by using mortars and artillery to the direction of the sovereign  territory of the Republic of Armenia, because of which there are  casualties and wounded. Such development of the situation proves that  the instigated coordinated provocations are aimed at disrupting the  negotiating active processes for imposing pressure on Armenia. Such  thing also happened yesterday.

During last three years, as a consequence of creeping military  occupation tactics and wide-scale military operations by Azerbaijan  against territorial integrity of Armenia, about 150km2 of the  sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, which is the zone of  responsibility of the CSTO was illegally occupied.  We regret that in  our organization there is no common assessment to the fact of  Azerbaijan's aggression towards the sovereign territory of the  Republic of Armenia, and the anti-legal presence of the invaded  Azerbaijani armed forces on the internationally recognized territory  of Armenia. In the context of the CSTO Observation Mission on the  border with Azerbaijan, it was underlined that in order to have the  mission effective for the country and the whole region, it is  necessary to specify the zone of responsibility of the CSTO. The  ambiguity of the colleagues' positions is amazing, when there are  undeniable facts of violations of internationally recognized borders  of Armenia.  During our previous meeting also I warned my colleagues  about the destabilizing perspectives of the policy pursued by  Azerbaijan. Baku shows contempt to the international colleagues, with  the presence and mediation the official Baku recognized the  territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia and assumed  obligations also on the basis of Alma-Ata declaration in demarcation  between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Dear colleagues, The establishment of peace in the region is the goal  that pursues the Republic of Armenia. And the basis of stable peace,  security and stable development of the region can only be the open  and constructive dialogue. Since the past year Armenia and Turkey  began regulation process of relations, but there are still no  tangible results, and still many issues remain unsolved. We think  that the regulation process should be without preconditions.   Concluding my speech, I would like once again to stress the  importance of making diplomatic efforts. I call on all my colleagues  who are interested in peace and stability of the present region, who  have close relationship with Azerbaijan, to take practical steps on  eliminating the violations of the international law and excluding the  use of force. All these challenges require from all CSTO Member  States to solve the existing issues through the use of the whole  toolset of the organization, and the most important thing - to  express clear positions on them without biased political preferences  and priorities. If we are not able to do it together, tomorrow such  challenges can arise for each of the CSTO Member State.

The peaceful development of the region has no alternative.  Thank you  for attention."