Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan participated in the OSCE Special Permanent Council meeting which was convened at the request of Armenia in Vienna on Thursday.
Before the session, he had a brief meeting with Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council Igor Djundev, the Foreign Ministry reported.
Ararat Mirzoyan delivered remarks at the PC meeting which are provided below.
"I would like to now turn to the political and security dimension and would like to reiterate that the Armenian side is committed to continuing its efforts for normalization of relations and opening a new era of peace in our region.
And taking this opportunity, I would like to highlight the importance of the negotiations mediated and facilitated by our partners. We appreciate their efforts and dedication to the peace agenda and a better future for our region.
We are convinced that durable peace in the region is possible and it’s possible if the sides show utmost willingness to address the root causes of the conflict. In this regard, the issue of rights and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh is key.
As stated recently by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, we are ready to recognize Azerbaijan’s 86,600 square kilometres, which includes Nagorno-Karabakh, however with the understanding that the issue of the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh must be discussed within a framework of an international mechanism, through Stepanakert-Baku dialogue. The respect for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should not and could not be anyhow misinterpreted and used as a license for ethnic cleansings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
For understandable reasons, I cannot go into much detail regarding the ongoing discussions and would like to just reaffirm our readiness to engage in good faith in finding solutions to extremely complex and sensitive issues and situations.
One of the most important issues in these negotiations relates to the mutual recognition of the existing interstate borders. According to the Almaty Declaration of 1991, the administrative borders of the former Soviet Republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan were recognized as interstate borders.
Armenia advocates having a clear borderline to avoid any future territorial claims and exclude the possibility of use of force for materializing those claims. And in order to avoid any further ambiguity, we propose to recognise as the basis for the delimitation of the state border the most recent existing maps.
To our deep regret, it seems that leaving much ambiguity in this regard is exactly what Azerbaijani leadership has in mind and strives for.
Furthermore, the establishment of peace and security also requires the implementation of certain confidence-building measures. With this in mind, we have proposed to create a demilitarized zone on the borderline between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Our suggestion is to relocate the forces to the borderline defined in the 1975 USSR General Staff maps and start discussions on modalities of the mentioned demilitarized zone or the distancing of forces.
Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani side is still hesitant to engage in these discussions, and the proposal of the Armenian side on mechanisms which was provided to Azerbaijan in written form more than a year ago has not been even considered.
Another issue of the negotiations agenda is related to unblocking of regional transport and economic links. Being a landlocked country and having closed borders with two out of four of our neighbors, Armenia is very much interested in pursuing this agenda, with the clear understanding that all communication links shall operate based on the sovereignty and national jurisdiction of the countries and according to the principles of equality and reciprocity. The progress achieved in the last three years on this issue gives us some optimism to pursue our vision on, as we call it, Armenian Crossroad.
At the same time, we see that in parallel with conducting negotiations on normalization of relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan consistently engages in actions on the ground that lead to worsening of the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. In his speech of May 28 President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev himself publicly confessed his real intentions and reluctance to properly address the issue of guarantees of rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
I would just refer to some messages from his speech:
“The border checkpoint established on the border on April 23 should be a lesson for Armenians living in the Karabakh region today.”
“We are about to take the last step in our plans, and that step will be taken – I have no doubt about that. I am telling them again from here, from the land of Lachin which they had been exploiting for many years and were engaged in illegal settlement, that their book is closed.”
“My representative went and held the first meeting with them, and then we invited them to Baku to talk. They refused to do that. After that, we invited them to Baku for the second time, i.e. representatives of the Armenian minority living in Karabakh. They refused that too. There will be no third invitation. Either they will bend their necks and come themselves or things will develop differently now.”
These statements, along with the failure by Azerbaijan, under various false arguments, to implement the legally binding decision of the ICJ and violation of its commitments under the November 9, 2020 Trilateral Statement, are revealing and clearly illustrate the real mindset of the Azerbaijani leadership and their stance regarding the issues related to and resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The statements and actions of Azerbaijan equally reveal the lack of adherence to the international law and calls of the international community.
Mr. Chairperson,
Now I would like to turn to the issue of Armenian prisoners of war and other captives that are still kept by Azerbaijan in captivity three years after the 44-day war.
Azerbaijan refuses to return all the Armenian POWs and civilian captives. According to the data confirmed by Azerbaijan, 33 people, including three civilians, are still kept hostage in Baku. Moreover, on 26 May 2023, after the meetings in Brussels and Moscow, two more servicemen of the Armed Forces of Armenia, who were delivering provisions and water to combat outposts, were abducted by the armed unit of Azerbaijan, which illegally crossed the state border of Armenia. Օn July 7, they were sentenced to 11.5 years of imprisonment.
This is yet another violation by Azerbaijan of the international humanitarian law and Trilateral statement from November 9, 2020."