Wednesday, November 26 2014

 The more efforts the international community exerts towards peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict, the more Baku intensifies its militarist rhertoric, Armenophobia policy and persecutions against the respresentatives of Azerbaijan's civil society, who advocate creation of atmosphere of confidence between the Karabakh conflict parties, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in his speech delivered at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He recalled that Armenia totally supports the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts towards peaceful resolution of the problem.    

Nalbandian said that the growth in the calls to withdraw the snipers from the Line of Contact of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops and to create mechanisms to investigate the incidents in the conflict zone increases the fires shot by Azeri snipers, as well as the Azeri provocations and sabotage attacks that claim numerous human lives.   
The Foreign Minister of Armenia added that the more petrodollars are transferred to the Azeri budget, the more funds Azerbaijan spends on the military sector. Nalbandian said that Azerbaijan's military expenses have increased from $136 mln to $3.6 bln. "Meanwhile, Baku is boasting of its intention to raise its military budget to $4.8 bln next year", he said. Minister Nalbandian stressed that the disproportionate military expenses of Azerbaijan seriously endanger the regional and international peace and stability.   Afterwards Nalbandian pointed out that Baku has rejected all variants of the basic principles of the Karabakh conflict settlement suggested by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in St.Petersbourg, Astrakhan, Sochi, Kazan, and this has resulted in a two-year break in the talks on the basic principles. "Over that period Baku intensified the provocations along the Line of Contact of the Karabakh and Azeri troops", said Nalbandian. He noted that the most horrible incident was the murder of the sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan by Azeri officer Ramil Safarov in the course of NATO exercise in Budapest. 
Nevertheless, he stressed that despite this incident, the Co-Chairs were able to resume the peace process in late 2013 in Vienna and some hopes for certain progress arose. "Unfortunately, these hopes failed, because Baku exerted all efforts to destabilize the situation in the conflict zone by mounting numerous sabotage attacks that claimed dozens of human livesм. An Armenian farmer lost his bearings and found himself in Azerbaijani captivity. Azeris humiliated him, tortured him and killed him on the next day. All this and the persecutions against the Azeri activists coming out for creation of atmosphere of confidence between the Karabakh conflict parties endanger the peace process", said Nalbandian. 

The minister recalled that over the past few months the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries organized three high-level meetings between the parties - in Sochi, Newport and Paris - to reduce the tension in the conflict zone. "However, after the Paris meeting, Azerbaijan resumed its militarist rhetoric and shot down a Nagorno-Karabakh helicopter that was conduting a training flight. Three Armenian pilots died as a result. Moreover, Azerbaijan was intensively shooting at the helicopter crash site for ten days to prevent the Armenian side from retrieving the bodies of the pilots", said Nalbandian. He added that for this reason the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army's Special Forces were forced to carry out a special operation to retrieve the bodies.  

Nalbandian pointed out that Baku made a negative response to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs' statement on the helipcter incident. "Azerbaijan is losing the sense of reality with every passing day and deepening the gulf between Azerbaijan and the civilized world", he said. Baku not only ignores the international calls to strengthen the ceasefire and create mechanisms to investigate the incidents on the Line of Contact, but it also provokes escalation, Nalbandian added. "This demonstrates that Azerbaijan has become a real threat against peace and stability in the South Caucasus. We share the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs' opinion that there is no military solution to the Karabakh conflict. The sooner Baku realizes this the faster the negotiations will lead to the conflict resolution", said the minister.