1 / 1

“Dear Colleagues,

Thank you Mr. Laurinas Kasciunas for your insightful report.

Also, Jean-Guy, the delegate of Canada, for mentioning the aggression by Azerbaijan towards the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and Canada’s firm commitment for human rights and democracy.

Among the many crucial aspects raised in the report I want to start with emphasizing the importance of democracy. Armenia recently held free, fair and transparent snap elections and I am proud to say we could defend our democracy in such a difficult time, considering the consequences of the horrible 44-day war aggression by Azerbaijan towards people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The role of democracy cannot be overestimated when talking about security, stability and peace. What we observe and moreover, many of us have to live through is suffering due to authoritarian countries surrounding us, some of them just neighboring us. 

Today Azay Guliev is speaking about the OSCE Minsk Group, saying he is unhappy with the work of the group. Maybe it is also the time that Azerbaijan admits that being unhappy with the negotiations as a tool to resolve conflicts, as democracies would usually do, it decided to violate all possible principles of international humanitarian law, the Helsinki Final Act and just attack Nagorno-Karabakh in a well-planned military aggression.

Now Azay Guliev is making a statement asking to replace Nagorno-Karabakh with a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the report. This is in fact the biggest mistake of Azerbaijan thinking it is ever possible to persuade the world that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is about territories, and not about people, that it is a territorial issue, while the conflict is purely about the right to self-determination.

And here is where, dear Colleagues, we all have to put out efforts in – “help” Azerbaijan finally understand that the conflict is not over exactly for the reason that it is not about unleashing inhumane war with drones on people and then saying let's have peace, but about a political process, respecting the self-determination right of the people living in Nagorno-Karabakh.

I have to disappoint Azay Guliev and Ms. Aigul Kuspan from Kazakhstan – the OSCE Minsk Group is the only internationally recognized format for resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the Minsk Group has multiple times stated that conflict needs to be over only through peaceful negotiations and a political solution, which the current report reflects. So once again thank you for the report, Mr. Kasciunas. And thank you, dear Colleagues for your attention and cooperation,” Hripsime Grigoryan said.