Chair of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly of Armenia Andranik Kocharyan has posted the following on his Facebook page:

“I have addressed a letter of thanks to President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Attila Mesterhazy in response to the latter’s previously issued statement.

The text of the letter reads as follows:

Dear Mr. Mesterhazy,

On behalf of the Delegation of Armenia to NATO, allow me to express my deep gratitude to you for your statement on stoppage of military operations that were launched on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border recently. Armenia highly appreciates the international community’s attention and especially the calls of the NATO’s leadership for peace.

The mandate for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reserved for the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship and requires a solution through negotiations. Armenia is against a military solution to the conflict and the aggressive rhetoric.

I regret to state that, contrary to the international community’s calls, Azerbaijan is not only continuing the military operations, but is also threatening to target peaceful civilians through international terrorism at the state level, and this is nothing but a threat to universal and regional security.

I fully hope that the leading international organizations’ statements for peace will finally force Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership to soberly assess the grave health-related situation in the world and return to the negotiating table.

Dear Mr. President, once again, I thank you for your truthful words.”