Monday, July 10 2023 10:03

ArmInfo. On July 8, Minister of  Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan took part in the panel  discussion "World Order out of Order: How to Stabilise World  Politics?" within the framework of the Dubrovnik Forum.

Touching upon the partnership between Armenia and the EU, Minister  Mirzoyan noted:

"Right now Armenia is in the middle of democratic reforms, very  large-scale democratic reforms, strengthening democratic  institutions, high level of human rights protection, independent  judiciary, etc.  This brings the European Union closer to Armenia and  Armenia closer to the EU. It is no surprise that we are also trying  to explore new horizons in terms of cooperation or deepening  relations between the EU and Armenia in various fields, including the  security dimension: we had the first ever session of Armenia-EU  political and security dialogue."

Ararat Mirzoyan presented the security situation in the South  Caucasus, the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno- Karabakh resulting from  the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor. He emphasized that there  is a real threat of ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in  Nagorno-Karabakh and the imperative to address the issues of rights  and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh.

"I can not restrict myself speaking about only what is going on in  Armenia, because of the security dimension, it also supposes some  topics, which are connected with what's going on around Armenia,  what's going on in the South Caucasus. Since we are speaking about  disorder, I should also make a couple of remarks on the external  threats and challenges that Armenia is facing now. You are now  speaking about world disorder and violation of international law,  international rules. Well, we have been speaking about this since  2020, when the war of aggression initiated by Azerbaijan began in  Nagorno-Karabakh. We have been speaking about this very loudly, but  few countries in the world were listening to us and now everybody is  facing a bigger problem. We have been speaking about our problem  being a part of a larger problem, a larger process of violation of  international order and now everybody is facing it. We have had  several invasions into the sovereign territory of the Republic of  Armenia and here I would like to express our appreciation that the  European Union made a very quick, very rapid decision, which was, by  the way, quite unusual, probably, for the EU. So, the EU made a very  quick decision to send an observation mission to patrol, to observe  the situation along the international border between Armenia and  Azerbaijan, our eastern neighbor. And the European observers are now  there and they are doing their job. This is a significant factor of  stabilization on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And we  are thankful for that."

But this is only a part of the problem, there is also the problem of  rights and security of the Armenian people living in  Nagorno-Karabakh. And I think we cannot pretend, we cannot close our  eyes and pretend that there is no problem there. There is a problem  there and this is not only Armenia's problem, this is also  everybody's problem. 

People living in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing a threat of real ethnic  cleansing, a real Genocide. If the world order which we are speaking  about and which we are dreaming of is based on the values, then  humanity has a chance.

If this is about values then you cannot avoid dealing with this  problem, because, once again, we speak about human lives. And  politics is about making human lives better. So, this is a difficult  situation, but this is a situation that we shall deal with. First of  all, acknowledge, secondly, make better efforts, bigger efforts to  prevent it, because there is a chance to prevent the ethnic cleansing  in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

We are engaged in negotiations, we are trying to find some solutions,  although negotiations and peace is very much like a tango, the dance.  To dance tango you need the second partner to dance with you. So, to  make peace you also need your neighbor willing to make peace, lasting  peace. You can start a war by yourself, but you can not have a  lasting peace only by yourself, unfortunately. So, we are engaged in  good faith in negotiations but during the negotiations and on the  ground we still meet the threats of use of force, we face real use of  force, we see the blockade.

It is not even a blockade, it is a siege of Nagorno-Karabakh: there  is no food, there is no medicine going to Nagorno-Karabakh for  already quite a long time. People are under siege. And this is a  problem that, unfortunately, cannot be solved only by ourselves, we  need help. I believe that everybody has or should have its own part  of responsibility. Again, if we want to live in order, not in chaos.

Within the framework of the Forum Dubrovnik, Ararat Mirzoyan also had  a number of conversations with colleagues participating in the event.