Statement In Response to Azerbaijan delivered by Ambassador Arman Kirakossian at the 1094th Special Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council

05 April, 2016

Mr. Chair,

On the one hand Azerbaijan is blaming Armenia in pursuing a consolidation of the status-quo and on the other accuses it of unleashing the latest escalation. This back and forth in its poor propaganda clearly demonstrates that the Azerbaijani side is trying to conceal its responsibility for the aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Throughout years the Armenian Delegation was consistently pointing that Azerbaijan has not rejected the use of force as a tool for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Refusal to engage constructively in the talks under the agreed format of the Minsk Group co-Chairs, continuous attempts to diminish OSCE presence in the region and downgrade the PRCiO Office, rejection of the proposed CSBMs indicated that the Azerbaijani leadership is preparing for a new aggressive war. Any initiatives of the Armenian side to make use of the OSCE confidence building toolbox in all three dimensions were effectively blocked by the Azerbaijani Delegation.

Here I would like to refer to the last statement of the Azerbaijani President, made on occasion of Novruz, in which he particularly stated that “Instead of resolving the conflict, the Co-Chairs put forward strange proposals on strengthening security measures on the Line of Contact.”I find it hard to understand that the leader of a country labels measures aimed at consolidating ceasefire and saving lives of soldiers and civilians as something strange. In doing so, the Azerbaijani leadership assumes full responsibility for the escalation.

The new aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh falls into the logic of its long standing policy of anti-Armenian hatred and intolerance. Such a policy, promoted at the highest level led to radicalization of the Azerbaijani society, in particular youth, something, which my Azerbaijani colleague here was proudly acknowledging last year in this hall.

The policy of demonization of the Armenian people made possible killing and glorification of Ramil Safarov, torturing to death Armenian civilians in Azerbaijani custody and eventually deliberate shelling of villages, decapitating and mutilating of bodies of civilians in the best traditions of the ISIL. The atrocities committed in Talish village yet again show that the NK people is facing existential threat and that it has no future under Azerbaijani rule. These atrocities leave no doubt about the real level of tolerance in Azerbaijan.

Thank You.

MFA RA
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