On May 8, 2018, a memorandum prepared by the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh was circulated in the United Nations (UN). The document reflects the position of the Republic of Artsakh on a wide range of issues related to the settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh. On May 18, the document was published on the UN official web-site and is available at http://undocs.org/en/A/72/858.

The document provides arguments and facts demonstrating the inadequacy of both historical and legal arguments of the Azerbaijani side, which in their totality are a kind of manifesto about Azerbaijan’s intention to further impede the realization by the people of Artsakh of their inalienable individual and collective human rights.

The memorandum emphasizes that, by a twisted interpretation of the norms  of the international law, Azerbaijan is making hopeless attempts to justify its destructive policy of isolating Artsakh and impeding the peaceful settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh: “Undermining any peacebuilding initiatives, aggressively imposing the logic of confrontation, trying to unleash a new war, the Azerbaijani authorities hope to change the course of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement, in which the tendency to an ever-greater recognition of the decisive role of the people of Artsakh in determining its future is clearly traced”.

“The Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, which began with the mass violations of the rights of the Armenian population of Artsakh, continues to this day precisely because of the unwillingness of the Azerbaijani side to abandon its policy of denying the individual and collective rights of citizens of the Republic of Artsakh. This policy, expressed, inter alia, in an effort to isolate Artsakh, together with the ongoing military provocations by the Azerbaijani side, is not only a violation of Azerbaijan’s international obligations, but also a serious threat to peace and security in the South Caucasus”, the memorandum concludes.