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On April 15, in Saint Petersburg the RA NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan delivered a speech at the international conference “Global Challenges and Threats in Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: Terrorism and Violent Extremism.” The NA Speaker particularly noted:

“Dear Valentina Ivanovna,

Dear colleagues, participants of conference,

First of all, I would like to thank you for the organization of this conference,

Terrorism and violent extremism in the manifestation of any forms have become one of the most dangerous problems of the 21st century. Last year was marked as one of the unprecedented challenges – a new coronavirus infection COVID-19. The rapid spreading of the new virus and the restrictions related to the pandemic created serious problems in all the countries. The world has become more unpredictable, all spheres of our activities has radically changed. We all witness how the political and social-economic systems of the country are put to test. I would like to especially mention the importance of the calls by the UN Secretary General “to put an end to all ‘hot conflicts,’ and do all the best “to avoid new ‘cold war.” New challenges require active cooperation at the level of the national parliaments and inter-parliamentary organizations. We need coordinated actions in the issues of the international agenda, respecting the international law, countering terrorism and extremism and eradication of all forms of discrimination.

Colleagues,

In time of pandemic the citizens of different countries showed examples of support and mutual help. It seemed that challenges related to the coronavirus infection and its grave consequences, should unite the states and the peoples. However, despite the call of the UN Secretary General and the global humanitarian crisis, at the end of September Azerbaijan with the full and open support of Turkey and the involvement of the mercenaries from different terrorist organizations of the Near East, unleashed large-scale military aggression against Nagorno Karabakh.

During the war the armed forces of Azerbaijan committed heinous crimes – shot purposefully the civilians and the infrastructures of vital importance, desecrated and destroyed the Armenian historical, cultural and religious heritage in the territory of Nagorno Karabakh, including the cathedrals, churches and other religious and historical monuments, such as the monuments to Armenian marshals and generals, who fought and won Nazism and fascism during the Great Patriotic War. All these actions were accompanied by the flagrant of violations of human rights and norms of international humanitarian law.

At the very beginning of escalation it became evident that the mercenaries and the militants from Syria and Lebanon replenished by Turkey are involved in the military aggression against Nagorno Karabakh. Russia, France, Iran, Syria and the U.S. also confirmed the fact of moving the militants to our region.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov still in November of the last year noted that about two thousand terrorists were thrown to the region. These mercenaries and the representatives of the terrorist structures, taking part in the war on the side of Azerbaijan, promoted turning the South Caucasus into the next centre of international terrorism. We reportedly stated that if not taking radical measures then the South Caucasus would turn into the platform of the international terrorist organizations, from where a new terrorist threat could proliferate throughout the whole region. According to the Chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Narishkin, from the first days of the war the mercenaries from such banned terrorist organizations in Russia as ‘Jabhat an-Nusra,’ ‘Firkat Khamza,’ ‘Sultan Murad,’ were thrown into the region.

I would like to especially mention the humanitarian problems too. As you know, the exchange of the captives, the forcefully kept persons and the bodies of the dead is one of the obligatory points of the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020. That process should begin immediately after its signing. Moreover, there was an agreement that ‘exchange of captives, the forcefully kept persons and the bodies of the dead’ should take place by the principle ‘all for all.’ However, after more than four months, we state that the Azerbaijani side grossly violates the corresponding agreements.

By now, Azerbaijan continues illegally forcefully keeping hundreds of Armenian servicemen and civilians. There are undeniable and confirmed facts that many captives were tortured, crippled and even killed. These crimes were shot on the video and spread in the social networks and were widely accepted in the Azerbaijani society. It is obvious that the delay of the return process from the Azerbaijani side of the captives is exclusively of artificial character and creates serious obstacles on the way of the implementation of the Tripartite Statement of 9 November 2020, and also the statements of January 11 of this year.

The Armenian side fully implemented all the obligations. In contrast with this Azerbaijan consistently refuses fulfilling the Tripartite Statement agreements, manipulates the lists of prisoners of war and forcefully kept persons, fabricating artificial criminal cases and in general, continues its policy of Armenophobia, with all this damaging the process of stabilization of the South Caucasus and deblockading the infrastructures. Such attitude to the reached agreements cannot but arise relevant reaction of the colleaguess, who are interested in peace and stability of our region. We are convinced that immediate and practical actions will serve the interests of the quick solution of this most urgent problem.

Colleagues,

We call on you to unity, solidarity and global partnership to soften the difficulties which we still will have. We have a task for working out joint consolidating actions facing modern challenges and threats, search of topical problems for legislative solutions.

Thanks for your attention.”