The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, delivered a statement at the 21st Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council, which was convened Thursday in Basel, Switzerland.

“This year marks the 20th anniversary of the cease-fire agreement, reached by Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan did everything to undermine the ceasefire regime, despite the calls of the international community to reinforce the cease-fire agreement of May 1994 and fully implement cease-fire consolidation agreement of February 1995. Military actions of the Azerbaijani side along the line of contact and on the Armenia Azerbaijani border, resulted in a significant loss of live and drastically raised tensions on the ground.

“During last years our diplomacy, together with the three Co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, the only internationally agreed mediation format, has spared no efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Despite the intensive efforts of the three Co-Chair countries during the last 6 years: about 20 summits, several dozens of meetings on ministerial level, visits of the three Co-Chairs to the region, 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.

“In Armenia we continue to believe that the elements outlined in the 5 statements of the heads of the Co-Chair countries on Nagorno-Karabakh can be the basis for reaching a fair and lasting settlement of the conflict. We share the position of the Co-Chair countries, that those elements should be seen as an integrated whole and that any attempt to select some elements over others would make it impossible to achieve a balanced solution.

“Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia has on several occasions reiterated and in response to the appeals of the Presidents of Russia, the United States and France, once again re-affirmed its commitment to the principles of international law, particularly the non-use of force or the threat of force, equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and territorial integrity.

“Azerbaijan is pretending that the international community shares its approaches and it shares the approaches of the international community, even pretended that it is ready to start the work on drafting peace agreement, while Baku failing to agree on the main principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In reality, Azerbaijan is continuously rejecting all proposals of the Co-Chair countries. Baku rejected all versions of the Basic Principles of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict proposed by the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group, including last versions presented at the Kazan (June 2011), Sochi (March 2011), Astrakhan (October 2011) and Saint Petersburg (June 2010) summits.

“Baku rejected not only the Basic Principles, but also confidence-building measures proposed by the Co-Chairs on consolidation of ceasefire and the establishment of a mechanism for investigation of the ceasefire violations, taking entire responsibility for its [consequences].

“An Armenian villager who had mistakenly wandered into the territory of Azerbaijan was arrested, humiliated in front of cameras, a tactic used by notorious terrorist organizations, and was found dead the following day.

“The more the international community, through the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs appeals to the sides of the conflict to prepare populations for peace and not war, the more we hear from Azerbaijan, including in the top level, increasing bellicose warmongering, anti-Armenian hate-speech, glorification of murderers of Armenians and persecution of those journalists, civil society activists, representatives of intelligentsia, who pursue confidence building and reconciliation projects, presenting them as ‘Armenian spies.’ The more the international community is calling on the sides to withdraw snipers from the line of contact, the more sniper shootings, provocative incidents, subversive acts are coming from the Azerbaijani side, resulting in numerous casualties.

“The more oil revenues are enriching the Azerbaijani budget, the more weaponry and armament are purchased by Baku. In 2015 Azerbaijan’s military budget will reach 4.8 bln USD, almost 30 times increase in a decade since Ilham Aliyev inherited the power from his father. The absolutely disproportionate military spending and acquisition of excess armaments by Azerbaijan poses a serious threat to regional and international stability and security.

 

“Such a militaristic posture is fuelled up by anti-Armenian propaganda and xenophobia.

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 and hatred being injected into the Azerbaijani society from the highest levels of its leadership.

“Many international organizations on human rights alerted about flagrant cases of racism, intolerance and violations of human rights in Azerbaijan, alerted on the policy of hatred against Armenians.

“The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its report on Azerbaijan noted with deep concern 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.’ What is the Azerbaijani response? Baku is trying to impose its own distorted perception of human rights on others, organizes fake conferences on tolerance and freedoms.

“Responsive nature of our organization entails proper assessment and adequate reaction to this behavior,” the Armenian FM specifically stated.