Armenia Calls on the OSCE to Stop Azerbaijani Provocations

YEREVAN — Armenia called on the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to take effective measures to stop the provocations of Azerbaijan and to resume the peace process. The head of the Armenian mission to the OSCE Armen Papikyan spoke about this at the special sitting of the OSCE Permanent Council. He added that the use of force in the OSCE area cannot “resolve” any conflict, “the use of force by Azerbaijan as a legitimate tool for resolving the conflict endangers the security of the OSCE region,” discredits the OSCE.

At a January 12 press conference, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that Baku would continue to “thwart the attempts of the OSCE Minsk Group to deal with the Karabakh issue.” As he noted that Azerbaijan is carefully pursuing army building in Armenia, the threats will be eliminated even inside the territory of Armenia.

Ambassador Papikyan did not address these threats from Baku, but called on the Polish OSCE Chairman-in-Office to focus on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and send a message to Azerbaijan that the continued use of force cannot be tolerated.

In its turn, Artsakh Foreign Ministry also issued a statement. Noting that Aliyev again used “anti-Armenian, destructive, bigoted vocabulary and ideas”, the Foreign Ministry expressed the opinion that “Aliyev intends to torpedo peace and stability initiatives and dismantle existing dimensions.”

“Such a policy is a gross violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and the agreements reached. It aims to torpedo peace and stability initiatives and dismantle the existing formats.

The Azerbaijani leader also specifically targeted the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship and the peacekeeping mission carried out in Artsakh by one of the co-chair countries- the Russian Federation, voicing absurd accusations against their activities.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanship is the only format for the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict agreed by all sides.

We highly appreciate the mission of the Russian peacekeeping forces in Artsakh and consider unacceptable any attempt to cast a shadow on their activities.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh strongly condemns the behavior of Azerbaijan, being convinced that such a policy carried out at the state level should be properly assessed also by the international community,” the statement says.