Azerbaijan’s policy a challenge to international community, Minister says

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) Republic Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoyan held an annual press conference Friday, December 25.

At the press conference, Mirzoyan briefed reporters on the 2015 foreign policy activities including campaign for international recognition of Karabakh independence, peaceful settlement of the conflict, provision of favorable conditions for Artsakh's development, improvement of international cooperation at all possible levels.

In particular, the Minister dwelled upon decentralized cooperation as a way to develop ties between foreign countries and Nagorno Karabakh. In this context, Mirzoyan mentioned the festival French Days in Artsakh held in the fall of 2015, with over 200 guests from France participating.

Elaborating on the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict, the Foreign Minister noted that Azerbaijan's policy constituted blatant disrespect towards the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and a challenge to the international community. In this context, Mirzoyan attached great importance to the immediate development and implementation of border investigation mechanisms on the line of contact. This measure, according to him, would allow to reveal the actual culprit behind the ceasefire violations, i.e. Azerbaijan, to avoid further untargeted calls on the parties to the conflict.

Also, Mirzoyan presented the priorities of the Karabakh Foreign Ministry for 2016, stressing, in particular, the peaceful settlement of the conflict and the international recognition of Artsakh.