Thursday, September 25 2014

 "It has been more than twenty years our neighbor aborts the efforts of the international community directed at the just and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by its unconstructive and maximalist stance," President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"The failure of an adequate international characterization of the bellicose declarations and various threats put forth at the highest level in Azerbaijan has resulted in all-out permissiveness. The President of Azerbaijan designates the entire Armenian nation as the "the enemy number one", and what is considered in the rest of the world to be a crime, is considered to be a glorious deed in Azerbaijan.  Despite the fact that each conflict is unique, fundamental human rights and freedoms, including the right of peoples to free expression of will and self-determination, continue to evolve as a determinant to their resolution. The vote held a few days ago in Scotland, once again proved that nowadays the institute of referendum is more and more widely perceived as a legal model for peaceful settlement of ethnic conflicts. It was no coincidence that the right to govern one's own fate through referendum is in the core of the proposal put forward by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

While discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement I cannot but address the four UN Security Council resolutions, which were adopted during the war, that every so often are exploited by Azerbaijani authorities in order to justify their obstructive policy.

It is about those four Resolutions that demanded unconditionally as a matter of priority cessation of all military hostilities. Azerbaijan failed to comply. Azerbaijan's own non-compliance with the fundamental demands of these Resolutions made their full implementation impossible. The Resolutions contained calls upon the parties to cease bombardments and air strikes targeting peaceful civilian populations, to refrain from violating the principles of international humanitarian law but instead Azerbaijan continued its indiscriminate bombardments of civilian populations. Azerbaijan did not spare children, women and old men thus gravely violating all legal and moral norms of international humanitarian law.  Now Azerbaijan cynically refers to these Resolutions - refers selectively, pulling them out of context as a prerequisite for the settlement of the problem. The adequate interpretation of the UN Security Council Resolutions is not possible without correctly understanding the hierarchy of the demands set therein," the president said. 
The president recalls that the Resolutions inter alia request the restoration of economic, transport and energy links in the region (UN SC Resolution 853) and removal of all obstacles to communications and transportation (UN SC Resolution 874). It is no secret that Azerbaijan and Turkey imposed blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh and the Republic of Armenia from the outset of the conflict. The Azerbaijani President in his statements even takes pride in this fact promising his own public that direction would remain the priority of Azerbaijan's foreign policy.

"The abovementioned UN Security Council Resolutions called upon Azerbaijan to establish direct contacts with Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan refused to establish any direct contact with Nagorno- Karabakh, which was a legally equal party to the Ceasefire Agreement concluded in 1994, as well as to a number of other international agreements. Moreover, Azerbaijan preaches hatred towards people it claims it wants to see as a part of their state.
None of the UN SC Resolutions identifies Armenia as a conflicting party. Our country is only called upon "to continue to exert its influence" over the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians (UN SC Resolutions 853, 884) in order to cease the conflict. Armenia fully complied, and partly owing to its efforts a ceasefire agreement was concluded in 1994. All the UN SC Resolutions have clearly recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as a party to the conflict.

Azerbaijani authorities have failed to implement the fundamental demands of the Security Council resolutions, including abiding and sticking by humanitarian norms. Incidentally, Azerbaijan has been gravely violating this demand every now and then. Azerbaijan's cruel and inhumane treatment of the Armenian civilian prisoners of war regularly resulted in their deaths. Although, I think, one shall not be surprised about it because it is the same state that suppresses and exercises the most inhumane treatment of its own people. A clear proof of it was the decision of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture to suspend its visit to Azerbaijan due to the obstructions it encountered in the conduct of the official Baku," the president said.

Further in the statement, Serzh Sargsyan reaffirmed that Armenia highly values the indispensable role of the United Nations in the adjustment and implementation of the development goals. "I strongly believe that through the new "Post-2015" development agenda we will continue our efforts at seeking solutions and responding to challenges of global nature stemming from the Millennium Development Goals.  In conclusion, I would like to underline that we have passed the substantial part of the road leading to shaping the "Post-2015 Development Agenda" and we will continue our endeavors in this regard by displaying necessary flexibility in order to bring this process to its logical conclusion," the president concluded.