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Azerbaijan is doing everything possible to fail any progress in the negotiation process.

Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian, who is in Finland on an official visit, stated the aforesaid during his address Monday at Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki.

“Azerbaijan has been blaming the Armenians as well as the international community, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, represented by the USA, Russia and France, for lack of progress in the negotiations,” Nalbandian said. “To such baseless accusations one could ask some rhetorical counter-arguments. Who is rejecting to accept the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs as a basis for negotiations? Who is opposing all confidence building measures - starting with preparing societies for peaceful solution to the creation of ceasefire violations’ investigation mechanism? Who is blaming the Co-Chair countries, including by calling them ‘provocateurs and accusing them in ‘Islamophobia?’ Who is permanently attempting to shift the negotiations of Nagorno-Karabakh issue to other formats, to structures which do not have any international mandate to deal with the resolution of the conflict and which have never resolved any conflict previously? There is one answer to these questions – Azerbaijan.

“Thus, Azerbaijan is doing everything possible to fail any progress in the negotiation process, simultaneous to purchasing unprecedented amounts of offensive weaponry and then declaring that it has a right to use force as it does not see any perspectives in the negotiations. To put it simply, Azerbaijan has failed in the negotiations and is trying to find success via military option, where it has failed as well.

“Use or threat of use of force has been time and again condemned by the international community. Our neighbor has gone further, pursuing extremely dangerous policy of forcing its own will through the adoption of mass terror.

“During the four day war we witnessed also the exceptional brutality of Azerbaijani armed forces against the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Using “Grad” multiple rocket launchers Azerbaijan shelled schools in Nagorno-Karabakh which caused death and injuries amongst the schoolchildren. In one of the villages in Karabakh three elderly persons, including a 92 year old woman, were brutally tortured, mutilated, their ears were cut and then they were killed. Three captive soldiers of the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces were beheaded by Azerbaijani armed forces in ISIL style, which were subsequently demonstrated in the towns and villages and publicized through social networks. Moreover, when as a result of the mediation of the Red Cross, the bodies of Armenian soldiers were returned, it was undeniable that all of them had been mutilated after being killed. The shelling of Nagorno-Karabakh civilian areas is continuing to this day.

“These are gross violations of the international humanitarian law. For years Armenophobia has gotten wider dissemination in Azerbaijan on the state level. This is not a secret to anyone. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its report on Azerbaijan alerted with deep concern about the ‘constant and negative official and media discourse concerning the Republic of Armenia’ and recommended the Azerbaijani authorities to ‘adopt an appropriate response to all cases of discrimination and hate speech against Armenians.”

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