Chile condemns Azeri aggression against Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Chamber of Deputies of Chile unanimously passed a historic resolution, condemning the armed attack of Azerbaijan against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on Wednesday, May 18, Agencia Prensa Armenia reports.

The resolution, introduced by Deputies Gustavo Hasbun Zelume, Issa Kort Garriga, Denise Pascal Allende, Aldo Cornejo Gonzalez and Jorge Sabag Villalobos, sets a crucial precedent, since it is the first in South America that condemns the attacks of Azerbaijan, at the same time calling Nagorno Karabakh a Republic.

The Chilean Chamber of Deputies "reaffirms its commitment to peace and urges the Republic of Azerbaijan for an immediate cessation of all acts of war against the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh and the strict observance of the truce signed by both countries in 1994." Also, it "requests the Government of Chile to urge the parties to circumscribe the conflict settlement within the framework of the negotiations held in the Minsk Group, thus avoiding a regional explosion with unpredictable consequences."

"What Azerbaijan is doing undoubtedly marks a break not only of bilateral and international relations, but a permanent violation to the world peace and has to be condemned by the world and especially the countries like ours that feel some degree of brotherhood with Armenia," said President of the Armenian-Chilean Group of Friendship Zelume in an interview with Prensa Armenia agency.

The deputy admitted that they received pressures from Naciye Gökçen Kaya, Ambassador of Turkey in Chile, so that this resolution could not be approved, like the one approved last year, in which the Chamber of Deputies of Chile sympathized "with the Armenian nation condemning the genocide of its people that began in 1915."

The grounds for the decision say that "on the night of 1 to 2 of last April, ground forces and air of the Republic of Azerbaijan conducted a large-scale attack on the border with the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, with heavy artillery and last generation missiles" and that aggression represented "the most flagrant violation of the Ceasefire Agreement signed by both countries in May 1994 and a breach of UN rules on Pacific Settlement of Disputes."