ARMENIAN FM: NK PEACE PROCESS MOVING FORWARD

News.am
10:59 / 09/29/2009

"We consider the goals of disarmament and non-proliferation major
elements of global and regional security systems. We must shoulder
the responsibility and work not only towards non-proliferation
and elimination of nuclear weapons but also towards elimination of
militaristic aspirations of some states. It is totally unacceptable
when the threats to resolve the conflicts through military means
are made on the highest level, and those are left unabated by the
international community," RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated
at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly.

"The NK peace process, which is mediated by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group, is moving forward. The Presidents and the Ministers of
Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan meet regularly to discuss
the principles of a comprehensive resolution of the conflict. Armenia
is convinced that in order to create an opportunity for progress in
the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict, the parties
should commit to refrain from steps that could hamper dialogue and
the peace process," the Armenian FM stated.

"On the international arena, Azerbaijan consistently misrepresents
the essence of the Nagorno Karabagh problem, like two days ago in this
forum, trying to smother ethnic cleansings and its policy of violence
against the people of Nagorno Karabagh. The international community
recalls the Azerbaijani open aggression, large-scale hostilities
and war against Nagorno Karabagh, also with the help of mercenaries,
closely linked to terrorist organizations," Nalbandian said.

"We believe that there is a serious basis for the settlement of
the Nagorno Karabagh problem, if the provisions contained in the
Declaration signed by the Presidents of the Republic of Armenia,
the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation on 2 November
2008, in Moscow, and also in the Declaration of the Foreign Ministers
of the Co-Chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Grou n adopted by the
Foreign Ministers of all 56 OSCE member states on 5 December 2008,
are implemented. According to these documents, the parties must
commit themselves to the peaceful settlement of the problem through
negotiations, based on &’Madrid Principles’ of the Co-Chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group," he said.

"The Basic Principles, around which negotiations are held currently,
are anchored on the benchmark codes of the international law as
incorporated in the Charter of this Organization, the Helsinki Final
Act and other relevant international documents. The international
principles of Non-Use or Threat of Use of Force, the Self-Determination
of Peoples and Territorial Integrity are equally viable. Some
have long attempted to downplay the importance of the notion of
self-determination of peoples as a second-rate principle in the
system of international law, and inferior to that of &’territorial
integrity’. I have to disappoint the advocates of double standards:
self-determination is an unconditional clause of the international
law; it is about liberty, freedom of any people to choose its future
and fate, and to defend its collective rights whenever those rights
and that future are jeopardized. If self-determination was inferior
to territorial integrity there would have been only 52 member states
in the UN, instead of 192 present," stated the Armenian FM.