YEREVAN—Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has once again attempted to distort the truth about the UN Security Council resolution regarding the Artsakh conflict, deliberately omitting its clear requirement for the “immediate cessation of all hostilities,” Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told News.am in an interview Friday.
On Thursday, Azerbaijan issued a statement with yet another groundless accusation against Armenia regarding heightened tensions on the border between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, claiming that Armenia is in violation of the UN Security Council resolution in question.
The statement is yet another product of Azerbaijan’s very active state propaganda, Nalbandian said.
“The primary and unconditional requirement of all four UN Security Council resolutions on the Karabakh issue of 1993 was the cessation of the hostilities and military activities,” Nalbandian said. “It was because of the non-compliance of Azerbaijan to the main requirement of these resolutions that made their implementation impossible. And it is at least ridiculous that Azerbaijan refers to those same resolutions, given that their implementation failed because of Baku itself.”
“It is necessary to reiterate that none of the UN SC Resolutions refers to Armenia as a party to the conflict. Armenia is only called upon ‘to continue to exert its influence’ over Nagorno-Karabakh and the latter is apparently recognized as a party to the conflict, something that Azerbaijan continuously tries to ignore,” Nalbandian explained.
Azerbaijan has also rejected the requirement of the Security Council resolutions on restoration of economic, transport, and energy ties in the region, the Foreign Minister noted.
“Moreover, the resolutions of the UN Security Council urged to refrain from any action that would obstruct a peaceful solution to the conflict and to exert efforts to settle the conflict within the Minsk Group framework,” Nalbandian said. “And what has Azerbaijan done? Absolutely the opposite: after every resolution it launched new large-scale military activities.
“Baku resorted to new provocations to undermine the negotiation process and the efforts of Armenia and the international community to resolve the conflict exclusively by peaceful means. It continuous to do the same today.
“Obviously, it is the Azerbaijani authorities that have repeatedly violated the UN Security Council resolutions to comply with the principles of international humanitarian law, something which they continue to do even today, the vivid example of which is the case of the crew of the downed helicopter.
“By the provocative step of shooting down the helicopter, while on a training flight, Azerbaijan has blatantly violated not only the provisions of the UN Security Council resolutions, but also the trilateral agreements of 1994 and 1995 on the establishment and consolidation of the cease-fire regime, as well as numerous calls of the international community on strengthening of the ceasefire regime.
“In accordance to the international commitments on confidence building measures, Armenia and Karabakh have notified through the OSCE channels and mass media about their intention to hold beforehand planned joint military exercises, unlike Azerbaijan which during recent months has held a number of military exercises, including in the vicinity of the line of contact and has never informed about them appropriately.
“Facing the reaction of the international community to its policy of hostility, Azerbaijan tries to hide the weakness of its arguments by futile allegations.
“Baku continues to oppose the international community which was once again demonstrated by its reaction to the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Azerbaijan is clearly losing the sense of reality and day by day is deepening the gap between itself and the civilized world.”