YEREVAN, November 12. /TASS/. Azerbaijan should give up hate polices and take a constructive stance for the sake of easing tensions and putting the region on a peaceful development track, Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mger Grigoryan said at an online meeting of the CIS Heads of Government Council on Friday.
"Azerbaijan continues to torpedo the implementation of the achieved agreements in various ways. For one, it still keeps in custody many prisoners of war, which is a crude violation of paragraph eight of the November 9, 2020 statement, and of international law. For easing tensions and putting the region on a peaceful development track it is essential for Baku to take a constructive stance and give up hate policies and any hostile actions," he said.
Grigoryan said Armenia appreciated Russia’s mediatory efforts for ending hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the activity of Russian peacekeepers in the region.
"A year ago, a trilateral statement by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan was adopted, thanks to Russia’s brokerage, on a ceasefire and the termination of all combat operations in the area of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We appreciate the efforts exerted by the Russian allies, as well as the activity of the peacekeeping contingent, deployed along the disengagement line and the Lachin corridor," he said.
Grigoryan recalled that the conflict, which he blamed on Baku, left 40,000 people homeless and destitute, 17,000 civilian facilities ruined and several hundred people dead or injured.
Tensions in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict aggravated on September 27, 2020, when hostilities flared up. On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on the complete cessation of hostilities in the region. Under the agreement, the Azerbaijani and Armenian forces stopped at the positions they were holding at the moment. A number of districts were put under Baku’s control. Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line and the Lachin corridor.