Azerbaijan intends to seize new territories from Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted about this in his address Thursday at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

He reflected on the large-scale military aggression of Azerbaijan on the sovereign territory of Armenia on September 13, noting that the Azerbaijani military shelled 36 Armenian residential areas and communities.

“This was not a border clash. It was a direct, undeniable attack against the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Armenia, which was condemned and addressed during the latest UN Security Council meetings and beyond,” Pashinyan added.

He noted the Azerbaijani attack deliberately targeted civilian population and vital civilian infrastructures, including Jermuk city and some resort places of Armenia.

Pashinyan stated that as a result of this military aggression, the number of Armenian civilians and missing persons at the moment exceeded 207, a total of 293 servicemen and 8 civilians were wounded, and spoke about the inhuman treatment of the Armenian detainees by the Azerbaijani side.

“In the wake of this offensive, the official narrative and other sources of information suggest that Azerbaijan intends to occupy more territories of Armenia, which needs to be prevented. I want to stress that the risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high, especially taking into account that every day Azerbaijan violates the ceasefire, and the number of causalities and those injured could change any moment,” the Armenian premier said.

Pashinyan added that another factor for further escalation can be inappropriate reaction to this situation by the regional security organizations, which, according to him, has raised very hard questions among Armenian society.

In his words, despite the above-mentioned facts Azerbaijan is trying to pose itself as a country seeking peace in the region and peace with Armenia.

“And for staging this impression Azerbaijan is using the subjects of Peace treaty with Armenia, border delimitation, and regional communication opening agenda,” Pashinyan added. 

The Armenian PM noted Azerbaijan is periodically hinting in its political speech that Armenia has to provide an extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan, and according to them the 9th article of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020 is supposed to do that.

“The trilateral statement is a public document and in the 9th article there is nothing about corridor, extraterritoriality, etc.,” he said, noting that Azerbaijan’s respective objective is to create a new crisis as a pretext for a new aggression against Armenia and for a new territorial claim.

Nikol Pashinyan stated that the Armenian democracy is struggling in an atmosphere, when Azerbaijan is using force every day, to impose its plans unilaterally, to bring to the end the Armenian statehood, independence and democracy.

“But I’m here to announce that we are determined to defend our democracy, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity by all means. I want to underscore that diplomatic solutions are an absolute priority for us and the full engagement and support of international community is crucial,” he said.

In this regard I would like to mention, that the international observation mission to the Armenia-Azerbaijan bordering areas would be an important factor for regional stability.

“Undeniably, in the interests of regional stability and in accordance with norms and principles of international law Azerbaijani military forces must be withdrawn from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia,” the premier noted, adding that Armenia needs the full support of international community in this regard. 

At the end of his address, Nikol Pashinyan said he believes in the potential of establishing long-term stability, security and peace, and that Armenia is committed to continuing diplomatic efforts to this end.