Baku’s initiative to get the resolution put on the U.S. General Assembly agenda is evidence Azerbaijan is trying to get the peace process out of the OSCE Minsk Group’s control, Giro Manoyan, director of the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun international secretariat, told NEWS.am, commenting on the draft resolution on Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, which is to be put to the vote at the U.N. General Assembly on September 9.

Azerbaijan is well aware of the fact that the OSCE Minsk Group’s proposals underline the impossibility of Nagorno-Karabakh being part of Azerbaijan. That is the reason for Baku’s attempts to get the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process out of the OSCE Minsk Group’s control, Manoyan said.

He stressed that the U.N. General Assembly approving the resolution may provoke new hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, as the Azeri leaders may interpret the decision as the international community’s approval of its policy. As regards the possibility of the General Assembly approving the resolution, Manoyan stressed each U.S. member-state votes in its own national interests. “So the OSCE Minsk Group member-states must be more active to prevent the adoption,” he said. The ARF member also urged the Armenian political forces and foreign office to be active.   

The draft resolution to be put to the vote at the U.S. General Assembly on September 9 particularly underlines the unacceptability of demographic changes in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and of destruction of cultural monuments, as well as the need for necessary conditions for refugees’ return.