12:07,
YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired the regular Cabinet meeting. At the beginning of the session, Prime Minister Pashinyan referred to the decision of the International Court of Justice regarding the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor and other issues, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.
In particular, the Prime Minister noted.
"Dear participants of the Cabinet meeting,
Dear people,
The International Court of Justice last week made an important decision regarding the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor. Based on the application of the Republic of Armenia, the court reaffirmed the legally binding decision made on February 22 of this year, by which it obliged Azerbaijan to take all the measures at its disposal to ensure the uninterrupted movement of people, vehicles and cargo in both directions through the Lachin Corridor. With such a decision, the court actually recorded that Azerbaijan did not comply with the decision of February 22 of this year, otherwise there would be no need to reaffirm that previous decision.
This is an important nuance. In paragraph 28 of the July 6 decision, the court, mentioning the information provided by the Armenian side that the so-called protest of environmentalists is no longer taking place, but even now movement through the Lachin Corridor is interrupted due to the installation of a checkpoint by Azerbaijan, noted that the essence of the matter does not change from this, because the consequences of the interruption of movement through the Lachin Corridor for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are the same as in February 2022, therefore, the approach of the court and the legally binding decision also remain the same.
However, there are some nuanced differences between the court's decisions of February 22 and July 6, because if in February the Government of Azerbaijan said that the environmental protest was not organized by it and it was a spontaneous rally of civil society, now it has no opportunity to say such a thing, because now the Lachin Corridor is already blocked due to the actions of the state structures of Azerbaijan. And therefore, by the decision of the International Court of Justice, the responsibility of the Azerbaijani government for the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh is reaffirmed and further strengthened.
However, Azerbaijan's activity for "environmental protection" continues, and now that country is trying to present environmental accusations to Armenia on an official and unofficial level. Moreover, for this, Azerbaijan attributes mines to Armenia that simply do not exist, raises circumstances that are fictitious, points to decisions that are about something completely different, mentions conventions that are not relevant.
The public and private sector organizations of Armenia, of course, point out and will continue to point out the fictitious nature of Azerbaijan's accusations. I will only refer to the following circumstance. Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy has published the 2022 ranking of the world's most ecologically clean countries. The rating table measures the state's achievements in terms of environmental status, is based on 22 indicators of natural resources management and 10 categories, which address issues of environmental protection from the perspective of the vitality of the eco system, preservation of biodiversity, countering climate change, health status of the population, and the burden of economic activity on the environment, and also measure the effectiveness of state policy in the field of environmental protection. And here is in the 2022 rating, Armenia took the 56th place, and Azerbaijan – the 104th.
The progress and achievements of the Republic of Armenia in the organization of transparent and responsible mining industry are also expressed in the publications of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Returning to the topic of the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result, I would like to emphasize that the binding decision of the International Court of Justice provides an opportunity to ensure greater international consolidation around the issue in order to counter the policy of ethnic cleansing conducted by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. In this sense, the dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert within the framework of the international mechanism with the agenda of ensuring the security and rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh is extremely important.
Dear participants of the Cabinet meeting,
Dear people,
Yesterday, the fourth meeting of the Commissions for delimitation of the state border and border security between Azerbaijan and Armenia took place on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. A message was released about it.
On Saturday, July 15, my meeting with the President of the European Council and the President of Azerbaijan is scheduled in Brussels. I have confirmed my participation in that meeting, I hope to make progress in the peace treaty negotiations during the meeting.
Thank you”.