Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan, who is on a working visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan, on October 28, participated in the regular session of the Council of Heads of Governments of the CIS member states.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan made a speech during the session.
"Against the background of Armenia's constructive efforts to normalize relations with Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan's provocative actions and bellicose statements, where threats to use force alternate with unconcealed aggressive aspirations against the sovereign, internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia, do not stop," Grigoryan said.
He noted that "Yerevan believes that the main role in the normalization of relations is assigned, among others, to the constructive joint work of the commissions on delimitation and border security established within the framework of the implementation of the relevant agreement reached during the trilateral meeting of the Armenian Prime Minister, Russian President and Azerbaijani President in Sochi on November 26 last year. It is especially important to note the agreement that in the process of delimitation Yerevan and Baku, according to Grigoryan, must rely on the fundamental documents of the CIS, according to which the former administrative borders of the Soviet republics have become the state borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan."
Deputy Prime Minister reminded that since September 13 this year, Azerbaijan had been intensively bombarding the internationally recognized, sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, including houses, civil objects and civil infrastructure with the use of drones, small arms and artillery weapons.
As a result of the Azerbaijani aggression, according to the Prime Minister, the number of victims and missing persons, including civilians, has now exceeded 210. It is known about three dead and two missing civilians. Hundreds of people have been injured of varying degrees of severity. The number of military servicemen missing has reached 28.
More than 7.5 thousand people were evacuated from Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor and Syunik provinces of the Republic of Armenia - most of them women, children and elderly people.
"The videos of torture, brutal murders and mutilation of captives as well as abuse of bodies of fallen Armenian soldiers committed by Azerbaijani servicemen, circulated by the Azerbaijani side, have shocked the consciousness of the entire civilized world," Grigoryan said.
He called it extremely alarming that media reports on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Azerbaijani servicemen are not only widely spread among Azerbaijani users of social networks but are also positively assessed.
"The militaristic rhetoric of official Baku shows that Azerbaijan intends to occupy other Armenian territories as well, this must be prevented. Azerbaijan's attempts to attribute regular ceasefire violations to the Armenian side, thus preparing the ground for a new round of aggression against Armenia, also testify to this. The risk of new aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high," Grigoryan said.
According to him, targeted and clear-cut reactions of international partners to Baku's provocative statements play a special role in prevention of new attacks by Azerbaijan.
Grigoryan stressed that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through political diplomacy is an inseparable part of the establishment of peace and security in the South Caucasus region and in order to ensure stability and security it is necessary to unconditionally and immediately withdraw Azerbaijani armed forces from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.
According to him, Azerbaijan's continuous discussion of the "corridor topic" in the context of unblocking all regional communications only hinders the implementation of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020: "I want to stress that the ninth paragraph of this statement does not mention the term "corridor" anywhere. In the statement of November 9, 2020 the term "corridor" is used only in relation to Lachin, which ensures security of the population and vital activity of Nagorno-Karabakh and has no connection with the issue of unblocking transport communications in the region, all the far-fetched parallels to these agreements are counterproductive", noted Grigoryan.
He added that there are no unilateral obligations of Armenia in the statement to build a new road linking the western regions of Azerbaijan with the Nakhijevan autonomy.
"We have always offered and propose to unblock all transport and economic ties in the region on the basis of respect for the sovereignty and legislation of the parties, by conducting a constructive dialogue and finding effective mutually beneficial solutions," Grigoryan said.
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that Azerbaijan's obvious desire to route unblocked transport communications and limit human contacts as much as possible indicates that the Azerbaijani side is not pursuing the ultimate goal of establishing a lasting peace in the region.
