YEREVAN. – The COVID-19 pandemic was not the only challenge that our region had to face in the past year. The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, noted this in his statement at the recent High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned this from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Despite Secretary-General’s appeal for a global ceasefire amid the pandemic and the subsequent Resolution 2532 of the UN Security Council, last autumn Azerbaijan with direct support and involvement of Turkey and foreign terrorist fighters from Syria and Libya launched a large-scale aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting in thousands of casualties, tens of thousands of injured, displaced, causing loss of livelihood and collapsed infrastructures. A number of regions of Nagorno-Karabakh which were seized as a result of use of force, were ethnically cleansed and their population was a subject to war crimes and mass atrocities.
Azerbaijan used force to suppress the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] in a violation of the UN Charter, which among others clearly stipulates that all international disputes must be settled by peaceful means.
Throughout the 44 days of the offensive, Azerbaijani army committed flagrant violations of international law, including international human rights law and international humanitarian law, deliberately and systematically targeting civilian infrastructures, particularly schools, hospitals, maternity wards, communication systems, as well as vandalizing and destroying the Armenian cultural and religious heritage. Up to this day, Azerbaijan continues its transgressions, refusing to return the Armenian prisoners of war that it still holds in captivity, making territorial claims and attempting a seizure of sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia and blocking the entry of international humanitarian efforts to Artsakh.
These provocations must be met with the proper reaction of the international community. The access of humanitarian missions, and especially those of the United Nations to Nagorno-Karabakh must be granted swiftly and unconditionally.
More international efforts are needed to reinvigorate the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and to continue deliberations on a lasting political solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the acting Armenian FM added, in particular.
