Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan warned on Monday that the fundamental rights of the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) are endangered and urged action from the United National Human Rights Council, which he was addressing Monday in Geneva.

“Nagorno Karabakh is people. It is 150,000 individual human beings with dignity, responsibility and rights,” Mnatsakanyan said.

“Like any other people, they are entitled to freely enjoy their inalienable rights—all of them, including the right to self-determination, the right to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development,” added Mnatsakanyan.

“In their case, the right to life is especially endangered, as the existential physical security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh remains the biggest sustained threat,” warned the foreign minister.

“The atrocious assault on their human security in the early 1990s, the repeated aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in April 2016, continued glorification of cold blooded murderers for killing Armenians, accompanied with government sponsored anti-Armenian propaganda and xenophobia represent the core causes of the conflict,” explained Mnatsakanyan.

“The key to resolution and lasting peace in the region is the recognition of the human security and rights of the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” concluded the foreign minister.