Armenia urges Azerbaijan to take constructive stance

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia has urged Azerbaijan to adopt a constructive position, renounce its policy of Armenophobia, aggressive rhetoric and actions, in order to deescalate the situation and reach a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In a statement published on the one-year anniversary of the end of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh (Karabakh), the Armenian Foreign Ministry reiterated Yerevan's readiness to make efforts towards gradually overcoming the atmosphere of hostility, opening an era of stability and peaceful development.

"The 44-day war, accompanied by mass violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure and cultural monuments, use of prohibited weapons and other war crimes by Azerbaijan, resulted in thousands of casualties, tens of thousands of wounded, displaced people and mass devastation. As a result of the war, a number of regions of Artsakh were subjected to ethnic cleansing, and the population became victims of war crimes and mass atrocities committed by Azerbaijan. In particular, 40,000 people lost their homes and property, more than 17,000 civilian facilities and infrastructure were destroyed, hundreds of civilians were killed or injured, and the fate of many still remains unknown," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Armenia and Artsakh have consistently implemented the provisions of the Trilateral Statement, while just a month after the signing of the latter, despite the commitment to stop in the current positions at the time of signing, Azerbaijani armed forces infiltrated into Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher villages of Hadrut region of Artsakh, killing and capturing Armenian servicemen. Moreover, after the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from the regions mentioned in the document, the Azerbaijani side responded with the infiltration and continued illegal deployment of its armed units into the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia from the very same territories."

The Foreign Ministry reminded that Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the paragraph 8 of the November 9 Statement, holding numerous Armenian prisoners of war, captives and other detained persons hostage. The ceasefire, it said, established by the Trilateral Statement is periodically violated by the Azerbaijani armed forces, accompanied by targeting not only the positions of the Armenian Armed Forces and Artsakh Defense Army, but also peaceful settlements and civilians, leading to human and material losses.

Yerevan again denied that a "corridor" is going to be provided to Azerbaijan, something Baku has been harping on for several months now.

"The consistent Armenophobic policy blatantly conducted by the highest leadership of Azerbaijan, the ethnic cleansing in the territories of Artsakh fallen under the Azerbaijani control as a result of the use of force, the destruction and desecration of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage, as well as the obstruction of the access of international humanitarian organizations to Artsakh demonstrate the fact that the guarantee of the right of the Armenians of Artsakh to safe and dignified life in their homeland under the jurisdiction or control of Azerbaijan is impossible," the statement said.

"The realities created as a result of the use of force by Azerbaijan against Artsakh and its people cannot create basis for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan's claims that as a result of the war the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Nagorno-Karabakh itself does not exist in the international arena any more are also violations of the November 9 Trilateral Statement, as Nagorno-Karabakh is presented as a territorial entity right in the latter."