Author: Jhanna Virabian

Armenia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE Armen Papikyan delivered a statement on "The aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh and Armenia with the direct involvement of Turkey and foreign terrorist fighters" at the 1326th meeting of the Permanent Council on Thursday.

The Armenian diplomat informed about the Azerbaijani attacks on the Armenian defense positons in the Gegharkunik border section on 28 and 29 July, killing three Armenian servicemen and injuring four others.

“The Armenian delegation has repeatedly expressed concern over the lack of an adequate and robust international response to the aggressive actions of Azerbaijan and the belligerent statements of its leadership. We believe and would like to reiterate once again that the lack of an adequate response by the international community to the use of force against Artsakh and the flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and the Helsinki Final Act principles, mass atrocities perpetrated against the people of Artsakh, including ethnic cleansing, encouraged Azerbaijan to make the use of force as the main instrument of its foreign policy, thereby threatening regional peace and security,” Papikyan said.

“These flagrant violations of the trilateral ceasefire statement of 9 November 2020, are a logical continuation of the aggressive posturing and bellicose rhetoric of the president of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani leadership does not shy away from openly stating its claims to the territory of the Republic of Armenia. In a recent interview, the president of Azerbaijan, while admitting that the Azerbaijani military units are located in the territory of Armenia, reiterated Azerbaijan’s nonsensical and spurious territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia, stating, in particular, that “Zangezur” was the land of their ancestors. A claim that could be easily refuted by anyone with basic knowledge of history. Though, one should acknowledge that there is a peculiar version of history invented and taught in Azerbaijan,” the diplomat said.

Papikyan recalled that the Armenian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the military provocation of Azerbaijan, which further undermined regional peace and security, and stressed that the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for further escalation of the situation.

In this context, he expressed regret that the OSCE head remained silent and did not condemn the flagrant violation of ceasefire by Azerbaijan.

The diplomat also strongly condemned the mock trials and conviction of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives in Azerbaijan, insisting that they should be released and returned immediately, as stipulated in Article 8 of the trilateral statement of 9 November 2020.

“By constantly raising the level of tensions – not least through military provocations in Artsakh and on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as evidenced by the recent incidents – Azerbaijan seeks to postpone indefinitely and endlessly the resumption of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and, ultimately, the settlement of the conflict. Only the resumption of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, can create conditions for lasting peace in the region.

“Armenia is willing to engage in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process in good faith and will continue to act consistently in support of realization of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination, regardless of the efforts of Azerbaijan to remove this issue from the international agenda by all means, not least by denying the very existence of Artsakh and its people. The international community must reject such an approach in the strongest possible terms,” Papikyan said.

The humanitarian demining unit of the Russian peacekeeping contingent continues to carry out tasks for humanitarian demining of the terrain and objects on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

Currently, Russian servicemen are carrying out work to search for explosive objects and unexploded ordnance in the vicinity of the settlement of Machkalashen in the Martuni district, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The work in the settlement, in which the houses of local residents are located on the slopes of a mountainous area, is carried out using IMP-S2 mine detectors and non-contact portable Korshun seekers.

The servicemen first of all check the road connecting the two parts of the village, house plots and other territory.

"Upon arrival in the next settlement of the Martuni district, we started cleaning the area from explosive objects. During communication with local residents, it was found out that there are unexploded ordnance in this territory. Today, more than 1,500 hectares of the territory have been checked. The work will continue for a week," said Yevgeny Kholodov, a soldier of the humanitarian demining group.

The detected ammunition and explosive objects are taken to a specially equipped Ballydzha landfill for subsequent destruction.

Since November 23, 2020, 2173.5 hectares of territory, more than 650 kilometers of roads, 1,892 buildings, including 30 socially significant objects, have been cleared of unexploded ordnance by the military personnel of the humanitarian demining unit, 25,640 explosive objects have been found and neutralized. More than 80 percent of the scheduled plan for the clearance of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was carried out by the servicemen of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.