Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
 Tuesday


Armenian FM calls on OSCE to enhance presence in NK conflict zone



YEREVAN, JULY 11, ARMENPRESS. As long as Azerbaijan fails to respect
its international commitments in compliance with 1994-1995 trilateral
ceasefire agreements, refuses to implement the Vienna and St.
Petersburg Summit commitments, especially on the creation of the
mechanism for investigation of the ceasefire violations, that can
become also a mechanism for prevention of escalation, Baku bears full
responsibility for all consequences for such behavior, Armenian
foreign minister Edward Nalbandian said during the Informal
Ministerial Meeting of the OSCE entitled ““Building trust through
dialogue and cooperation” in Austria.

ARMENPRESS presents the text of the minister’s speech, as reported by
the foreign ministry.

“Mr. Chairman,

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank the Austrian Chairmanship and particularly
Minister Sebastian Kurz for organizing this informal Ministerial
discussion.

Joining efforts with a view to overcoming distrust and increasing
confidence is enshrined in the birth certificate of this Organization,
while dialogue and cooperation have been long identified as the
instruments for achieving our common goals. We appreciate the
Chairmanship’s initiative to once again apply to the foundations of
the OSCE, since neither dialogue, nor cooperation can be taken as
granted nowadays. We hope that this kind of discussions can contribute
to reviving the true spirit of cooperation, being mindful that the
most noticeable accomplishments of the OSCE have been secured through
dialogue and compromise, political will and good faith.

The setbacks of our cooperation and erosion of trust do not merely
limit to the existing disagreements on number of areas. Here we refer
also to the abuse of the principle of consensus, the consequences of
which go far beyond from damaging the trust, especially in the cases
where there is none, but rather shaking the very essence of the OSCE
which is designed to solve the issues through dialogue and cooperation
and never through imposing the position of one participating State at
the expense of all others and the entire Organization. Thus, the
refusal of Azerbaijan to join the consensus on the extension of the
mandate of the OSCE Office in Yerevan damages not merely the integrity
of the field missions of the OSCE but its capacity of inclusive
cooperation in implementing the commitments. Azerbaijan failed to
respect the OSCE commitments back home and eliminated the OSCE Office
in its own country before it attacked and closed the OSCE last assets
in the region.

The violation and abuse of shared norms and principles do not happen
in a vacuum. It does not come as a surprise that this participating
State found itself alone and in isolation in challenging the OSCE
Office in Yerevan.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The dire record of Azerbaijan’s noncompliance encompasses all three
dimensions of the OSCE. The leadership of Azerbaijan uses every
opportunity to boast about multiculturalism allegedly cultivated by
them. In reality thousands masterpieces of Armenian cultural and
historic heritage, sacred sites, churches, monasteries, cross stones
destroyed and erased by Azerbaijan testify to the contrary. The 2016
report of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance
states: “Political leaders, educational institutions and media have
continued using hate speech against Armenians; an entire generation of
Azerbaijanis has now grown up listening to this hateful rhetoric”. It
is this generation raised in the environment of such propaganda that
again and again committs despicable crimes. How could the leadership
of Baku talk about multiculturalism at the same time declaring that
“all Armenians of the world are number one enemies of Azerbaijan”?
Probably it considers this to be part of Baku’s self-proclaimed
“intelligent power". There is nothing smart in trying to mislead the
international community, especially those countries that do not have,
difficulty to find out the truth, to warn their citizens of the
Armenian origin to avoid visiting Azerbaijan, where they will be
subjected to outrageous racist discriminating practice on the basis of
their ethnicity.

Mr. Chairman,

In April 2016 Azerbaijan unleashed a large scale aggression against
Nagorno-Karabakh that was accompanied by the grave violations of
international humanitarian law, atrocities against the civilian
population, including children, women and elderly persons, mutilation
of the bodies, Daesh-style beheadings, which have been condemned by
international community.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries initiated Summits in Vienna
and St. Petersburg aimed at overcoming the consequences of
Azerbaijan’s aggression as well as at creating conducive conditions
for the advancement of the negotiation process.

During the Vienna Summit it was particularly agreed upon and then
reconfirmed in St. Petersburg to establish the OSCE mechanism for
investigation of the ceasefire violations; to increase the number and
enhance the capacity of the OSCE monitors on the line of contact
between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, and on the border between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. The commitment on the exclusively peaceful
settlement of the conflict was reiterated, the strict adherence to the
1994-1995 ceasefire agreements was emphasised.

Trust and confidence are built when agreements are implemented. With
this understanding Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh gave their consents to
implement the mentioned high level agreements. Azerbaijan backtracked
from those agreements as it had done with prior commitments many times
before. This attitude of Azerbaijan questions its credibility for
being a party to negotiations, which honours its agreements.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In the framework of the OSCE trust means first of all trust into
Organization and its ability to address eminent security challenges in
Europe. We firmly believe that based on the proposals of the Co-Chairs
the OSCE should enhance its presence on the ground in the conflict
zone on more permanent and stronger basis. In this respect the OSCE
could help all parties to the conflict to respect ceasefire, avoid
military escalation and build trust and confidence. The OSCE is an
organization which was created on the lessons of history and history
teaches us on many occasions that war is an outcome of misperception
and miscalculation of security environment while peace is an outcome
of trust. Azerbaijan has chosen a different path.

People on all sides of the conflict deserve to know who pushes them to
the path of loss and suffering. Identifying the security threats in
impartial and responsible manner is important for credibility of this
Organization as well.

We took note that in their statement the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs
identified Azerbaijan as a party who first resorted to the violence.
This has been far not the first appeal of the Co-Chairs addressed
directly to Azerbaijan. On previous occasions the Co-Chairs have made
a number of clear cut statements calling Baku to refrain from the
escalation of the situation, to reaffirm the commitment to peaceful
settlement of the issue, to refrain from criticizing the OSCE Minsk
Group Co-Chair countries and to respect their mandate, give up efforts
to shift the conflict resolution to other formats, to agree to the
establishment of investigation mechanism of ceasefire violations. In
response to Azerbaijan’s claims that tried to question the validity of
the ceasefire agreements of 1994 and 1995, the Co-Chairs clearly
stated that these agreements have no time limitation and should be
strictly adhered to.

However, Azerbaijan ignores all appeals of the Co-Chair countries and
continues to stick to its highly destructive attitude at the
negotiation table and provocative actions in the conflict zone.

On July 4th the Azerbaijani leadership once again resorted to the
tactics of notorious terrorist organizations and as many times before
used its civilian population as a human shield for shelling the
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh by heavy weaponry, including by multiple
rocket launcher systems. In response, the Defense Army of
Nagorno-Karabakh was obliged to exercise self-defense against the
aggressive actions of the Azerbaijani side. Baku clearly demonstrated
that it is not capable to comprehend the appeals of the Co Chairs.

As long as Azerbaijan fails to respect its international commitments
in compliance with 1994-1995 trilateral ceasefire agreements, refuses
to implement the Vienna and St. Petersburg Summit commitments,
especially on the creation of the mechanism for investigation of the
ceasefire violations, that can become also a mechanism for prevention
of escalation, Baku bears full responsibility for all consequences for
such behaviour.

This stresses once again the imperative for the international
community to consider more tangible means to curb Azerbaijan.

We are bound together to advance the cause of peace and security
through the OSCE. We will continue to be actively involved in all
efforts aimed at building cooperation, consent and trust in the OSCE
area.

Thank you.”