Official Yerevan considers it advisable that the Armenian Parliament adopt a legal resolution on Azerbaijan’s responsibility for launching hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, misrepresenting it and torpedoing the negotiations process, RA Deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan told NEWS.am.

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes such a document would be beneficial to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. “The Government welcomed the document, and I presented it at a sitting of the Foreign Affairs Committee,” Sh. Kocharyan said. The author of the bill, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, RA Parliament, Armen Rustamyan said that the bill is on the small agenda and can be submitted for discussions at any moment.

The Committee proposed that the Parliament Speaker put the bill on the agenda. The document has been approved by the committee and is on the big agenda now.

According to the document, Azerbaijan must be responsible for its warlike statements, misrepresenting the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, disseminating hatred, refusing to accept its own crimes and torpedoing the negotiations. Azerbaijan is trying to deceive the international community. “Azerbaijan is trying to conceal the fact that it launched the hostilities thereby placing the burden of responsibility for the conflict on the Armenian side,” says the document. 

Meanwhile, numerous documents proving Azerbaijan’s responsibility for the military operations are available. The document mentions the Armenian massacres in Baku, Sumgait and Kirovabad. However, Azerbaijan is trying to impose its own truth on different international agencies, taking advantage of their poor awareness of the conflict. Azerbaijan is thus preparing the grounds for further military operations and justifying its position. The authors of the document underline the necessity of informing the international community of the real essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The bill highlights the fact that Nagorno-Karabakh exercised its right to independence in conformity with international standards. As a result, two independent states – Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic – were formed after the USSR collapsed. “In response, Azerbaijan launched ethnic cleansing in Baku, Sumbait and Kirovabad and Shamkhor. But Azerbaijan did not stop at that, but involved international terrorist forces and launched full-scale military operations against Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result, over one million people, regardless of their nationality, became refugees. Azerbaijan is fully responsible for that,” says the document. Also, says the document, Azerbaijan is consistently torpedoing Stepanakert’s immediate involvement in the negotiations to prevent the resolution of such issues as Nagorno-Karabakh’s status and security guarantees. Azerbaijan is also trying to avoid responsibility for the present situation.

“Unconditional application of principles of peoples’ equal right to self-determination is a guarantee of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a guarantee against new hostilities,” says the document.