Azerbaijan openly demonstrates its real goal - ethnic cleansing in  Nagorno-Karabakh, RA Permanent Representative to CoE

ArmInfo. On September 6, a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe was  held, during which the blocking of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan and the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh were discussed. This was reported on the Official Facebook account of the Permanent  Representation of Armenia to the Council of Europe (CoE).

According to the source, at the meeting Secretary General of the  Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric presented to the Committee  of Ministers the results of the visits of a high-ranking delegation  of the Council of Europe to Armenia and Azerbaijan in May-July this  year. A number of delegations, including the Delegation of the  European Union, made statements regarding the situation in the Lachin  corridor.

Permanent Representative of Armenia to the Council of Europe,  Ambassador Arman Khachatryan noted that during the visit to Armenia,  a high-ranking delegation of the Council of Europe, heading to the  starting point of the Lachin corridor, witnessed the complete  blocking of the Lachin corridor. He stressed that by its actions,  Azerbaijan openly demonstrates its real goal - ethnic cleansing in  Nagorno-Karabakh, which is incompatible with the obligations assumed  by Azerbaijan when it was a member of the Council of Europe.

The Ambassador stressed the need to stop the humanitarian and human  rights crisis caused by the complete blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh. He  called on Azerbaijan to end the blockade and fully implement the  legally binding decisions of the International Court of Justice and  the ECHR.

He added that the issues of the rights and security of the people of  Nagorno-Karabakh should be resolved within the framework of the  international Baku-Stepanakert dialogue mechanism.

As part of another issue on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers,  the report of Former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court  Luis Moreno Ocampo "Armenian Genocide in 2023" was discussed.  PACE  member  Pieter  Omtzigt asked a written question to the Committee of  Ministers of the Council of Ministers what steps the Committee of  Ministers had taken to prevent the perpetration of the genocide  against Armenians, and whether the current threat had consequences  for Azerbaijan as a member of the Council.

Ambassador Khachatryan, referring to the Ocampo report, noted that  the blockade of the Lachin corridor should be considered as genocide  in accordance with Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and  Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. He said that there are also  other opinions and reports on the danger of ethnic cleansing and  genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh, such as the report of Former Special  Advisor to the Secretary- General on the Prevention of Genocide,    Juan Mendez.

The Ambassador stressed that Azerbaijan's actions against  Nagorno-Karabakh contradict the principles and values of the Council  of Europe. "The Council of Europe cannot leave Azerbaijan's obvious  violations of its membership and convention obligations without  consequences," the Armenian diplomat stressed.