Regrettably, Armenia also witnessed intolerance and hatred in our part of the world, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said.
In his address to the 67th session of the UN General Assembly, Nalbandian stressed that year after year Armenia has been raising its concerns from this podium over the militaristic rhetoric, blatant violation of international commitments and anti-Armenian hysteria being instilled into the Azerbaijani society from the highest levels of its leadership.
According to him, many international organizations on human rights alerted about flagrant cases of xenophobia, racism, intolerance and violations of human rights in Azerbaijan, alerted on the policy of hatred against Armenians.
“What is the Azerbaijani response? It is not only ignoring the expectations of the international community, but is constantly making new and new steps going against the values of civilized world. The latest such case is the Azeri government’s release and glorification of the murderer Safarov, who had slaughtered with an axe an Armenian officer in his sleep, during a NATO program in Budapest simply because he was an Armenian.
The Azerbaijani leadership made him a symbol of national pride and an example to follow by youth. The world reaction was unanimous and very clear in condemning what was done by Baku. Azerbaijan expresses bewilderment on the stance of the international community. And what did they expect? That the international community would applaud the glorification of a heinous murderer?
Azerbaijani leadership is continuing to pretend that this act corresponds not only to the Azerbaijani constitution and legislation, but also to the norms and principles of international law, the respective European Convention. The leadership of this country is claiming that what was done is just very good. It is very sad that the constitution and legislation of any country could allow the heroization of a murderer and salary payment for the years passed in prison by brutal criminal.”
He recalled that the Council of Europe Commissioner of Human Rights warned that “to glorify and reward such a person flies in the face of all accepted standards for human rights protection and rule of law”. The European Parliament President and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe President alerted about the abuse of the European legal instrument. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that “ethnically motivated hate crimes of this gravity should be deplored and properly punished - not publicly glorified”.
“It is very clear that there are different perceptions about international legal principles and laws, different perceptions in Azerbaijan and the rest of the world about what is good and what is bad. This is deeply irresponsible and shameful behavior of not only a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, but a member of the UN.
It is clear that international community should not tolerate the attempts of the Azerbaijani leadership to adjust the international law to their own racist ideology. Having a rich internal experience in corruption Baku is attempting to transfer it to interstate relations exploiting it as a tool to impose its own misperceptions on others. The international community could not tolerate the attempts of Azerbaijan to replace the rule of law with the rule of oil,” he said.
The Minister noted that Safarov’s scandalous affair has seriously undermined the Karabakh peace process and endangered the fragile regional security and stability.
“Azerbaijan poses a threat to the security and stability in the region by its constantly menacing to use force against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia along with unprovoked daily war-mongering by its leadership, by not only rejecting the proposals of the three Co-Chair countries on the consolidation of the ceasefire agreement, on the creation of a mechanism of investigation of incidents on the line of contact, but also by systematic ceasefire violations not only on the contact line between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, but also by provocations on the border with Armenia, by ceaseless acts of vandalism towards the Armenian historical and cultural heritage.
While Armenia together with the international mediators is exerting efforts around the table of negotiations, Azerbaijan is multiplying its military budget, increasing it more than twenty fold during the last few years, and boasting about it. While Armenia and the international community are calling for withdrawal of snipers from the line of contact, Azerbaijani leaders are rejecting it and opening sniper schools for the youth. While Armenia is calling for regional economic cooperation, which could become a tool for increasing confidence between the parties, Azerbaijani authorities are declaring that together with Turkey, they will continue the blockade until there are no more Armenians in Armenia.
Armenia and the international community are speaking in one language regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The documents on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict adopted in the frameworks of the OSCE Astana Summit of 2010 and Ministerial Conferences of Helsinki 2008, Athens 2009, Almaty 2010, Vilnius 2011, the statements of Presidents of the Co-Chair countries in the frameworks of the G8 Summits in L’Aquila in 2009, in Muskoka in 2010, in Deauville in 2011 and during the G20 Summit 2012 in Los Cabos are proofs of that. Armenia’s position is in line with these documents, is in line with the position of the international community - to go for the settlement on this basis.
Despite the intensive efforts of the three Co-Chair countries it has been impossible to reach a breakthrough in the conflict resolution, because the Azerbaijani side rejected one after another all proposals presented by the mediators.
Regardless of Azerbaijan’s destructive stance, Armenia will continue to exert efforts towards the settlement of the Karabakh issue exclusively through peaceful means and on the basis of the purposes, principles and norms.”
