The President of Azerbaijan himself violates the statement made in Sochi on November 26, 2021 and breakes the reached agreement, according to which the border delimitation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan should proceed under conditions of ensuring border security and exclude any escalation.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this today, 10 November, during the regular Cabinet Meeting of the Government.

The President of Azerbaijan himself broke the agreement reached in Brussels in December 2021, according to which a simultaneous withdrawal of troops was to be carried out in the most dangerous areas.

And why is it acting this way, why does Azerbaijan bring the process to a dead end every time? to continue his aggressive policy of genocide. The President of Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of having an army in Nagorno Karabakh as part of the preparations for the genocide of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.

First of all, I must record that the Republic of Armenia does not have an army in Nagorno Karabakh, and Azerbaijan itself rejected the offer to send an observation mission to Nagorno Karabakh to clarify this issue, which I made on October 6 of this year in Prague.

There is no army of Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, there is the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is perhaps a serious obstacle to implementing the genocidal policy. My perception is that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh have an army only and only because of the danger of being subjected to genocide.

Moreover, on October 31, during the trilateral meeting in Sochi, I presented the proposal of the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities on this topic: to create a demilitarized zone around Nagorno-Karabakh, with international guarantees, as a result of which Nagorno-Karabakh may not need a defense army of such a scale. That proposal is still in force, I believe.

We made and are making a demilitarization proposal also regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan border zone, proposing to withdraw the troops from the border reestablished in 1991, creating a 3-kilometer demilitarized zone on both sides of the border. That proposal remains in force, and we sent an updated version of it to Azerbaijan yesterday. In any case, I must record that the armed forces of Azerbaijan must be withdrawn from all occupied parts of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, and this our position will never be changed in any way.

If Azerbaijan tries to justify with fictitious reasons and ex post facto the aggression against the Republic of Armenia, occupation of territories in May, November of last year, the agression launched on September 13, 2022, the shelling of 36 settlements in the sovereign territory of Armenia, including Goris, Jermuk, Vardenis, Kapan, Geghamasar, the displacement of 7,600 civilians, including 1,437 children, 99 persons with disabilities, the targeting of 193 residential houses, 3 hotels, 2 schools, one medical center, the killing of 211 Armenians, including 3 civilians, the extrajudicial executions of at least 11 prisoners of war, including the torture and humiliating treatment of the bodies of female servicemen cannot be justified, and all calls to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice are unequivocally righteous.

The demand of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to stop violations of the line of contact by the Azerbaijani troops and withdraw the troops from the area of responsibility of the peacekeepers is also righteous, as well as to renounce the genocidal policy of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. A manifestation of this policy was the explosion by Azerbaijan of the only pipeline supplying Nagorno-Karabakh with natural gas in March 2022 in conditions of unprecedented cold, and the obstruction of its restoration for a long period. During the same period, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces illuminated concrete apartments and districts of a number of Armenian villages of Nagorno-Karabakh with strong searchlights at night hours, threatening residents to leave their homes, and calling for Islamic prayer combined with gunshots, performing “azan” through super-powerful loudspeakers.

And now the authors of this behavior want to accuse Armenia of anti-Islamic practices, while our respect for the Islamic religion and civilization is unquestionable. The Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people have fraternal feelings and partnership relations with dozens of Islamic countries and peoples, while Azerbaijan, with its above-mentioned practices, reminds of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, which discredit Islam.

Dear colleagues, dear people.

This is the first time I am talking about all of this in such detail, and I am speaking in such detail because I see that Azerbaijan is trying to attribute its treacherous behavior to Armenia.

But this in itself would not be a problem if it did not occur in an environment where international and regional security faces serious challenges. If we pay attention to the speeches of the President of Azerbaijan, he actually threatens everyone: Russia, the United States of America, France, Iran, the European Union. Azerbaijan also continues to obstruct the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey, which can undoubtedly contribute to regional stability.

Of course, I understand that the global energy agenda has excited the president of Azerbaijan, but I also think that it is time for the international community to cooperatively take concrete measures regarding the actions of Azerbaijan, which have become a growing threat to the peace, stability, security, and democracy of the region. Especially, when we see that Azerbaijan continues to baselessly accuse Armenia of violating the ceasefire regime. Experience shows that the spread of such fake news becomes a prelude to new aggression. I have had occasion to say that sometimes Azerbaijan conducts skirmishes between its positions located in the occupied territories of Armenia in order to blame Armenia. And this has become a recurring practice.

I have to record that Azerbaijan also continuously violates point 8 of the trilateral declaration of November 2020 on the exchange of prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons, continuing to detain many citizens of the Republic of Armenia and trying to make this humanitarian issue a subject of petty bargaining.

Azerbaijan continuously makes the subject of missing persons an object of speculation, trying to create the impression that only it has that problem, and as if Armenia is unconstructive in the context of solving this humanitarian issue.

Meanwhile, this is an equally urgent and painful problem for the Republic of Armenia. The number of missing persons of the Armenian side from the first Karabakh war is 777, from the 44-day war – 203. We even have 16 missing persons since September 13, and the bodies of these soldiers are in the territories that appeared under Azerbaijani rule, and Azerbaijan is delaying their return to Armenia using all possible methods and fictitious pretexts. And since 2020, the Armenian side has returned to Azerbaijan 130 bodies of the missing persons from the first war and actively continues the work in this direction, which is extremely difficult due to the lack of any data.

As you know, Armenia also made a humanitarian gesture after the 2020 war by handing over to Azerbaijan all the maps of minefields in 7 regions, but Azerbaijan also turned this into an object of aggression and hostility rather than creating an atmosphere of mutual trust.

Dear colleagues, dear people.

Nevertheless, completing my speech, I must record that the Republic of Armenia is faithful to all its obligations, to all agreements reached.

I want to reaffirm our commitment to the agreements reached in Prague and Sochi, that is, to delimit and demarcate the borders with Azerbaijan and sign peace treaty by mutually recognizing each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of borders on the basis of the UN Charter, the Alm Ata Declaration and Protocol of 1991.

We will make every effort in our power to complete the delimitation of Armenia-Azerbaijan borders as soon as possible, to unblock all regional transportation and economic connections, to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan as soon as possible, because we are truly and sincerely committed to the peace agenda.

But if anyone thinks that the peace agenda is the “peaceful anihilation” of the Republic of Armenia or the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, they are sorely mistaken.The peace agenda is the peaceful development and coexistence of the Republic of Armenia and the region, and we will achieve our goal.”

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