Hayots Ashkharh: Armenian parliament official calls for intn’l sanctions for truce breaches over Karabakh

In an interview with the paper, a vice speaker of the Armenian National Assembly addressed Azerbaijan's recent attempts to escalate the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, emphasizing the urgent need of enforcing international sanctions against the side violating the truce.

Eduard Sharmazanov said he is sure that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (who act as a peace mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan) will inevitably issue their evaluations sometime in the nearest future.

“For many years, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group refrained from specifically addressed statements, a fact Armenia was all the time vocal about, but as you saw, the mediators did eventually issue such a statement, highlighting the side responsible for proactive raids. So if Azerbaijan holds on to its policy of offensive behavior, the OSCE, the Minsk Groups and the international organizations in general will, I think, establish clear-cut sanctions against that country. What the international practice requires is to avoid offering the meadow to pigs. Hence if a conflicting side blatantly ignores the norms in a negotiation process, continuing to disrespect the presidential commitments agreed in Vienna and St Petersburg, it should naturally incur sanctions,” he added.