Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, where he had a meeting with representatives of political, social and expert circles, participated in the discussion "Security and Stability in the South Caucasus. Armenia's Perspective".
The Prime Minister first delivered a speech, where he particularly said,
"Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to have this opportunity to be here today and address this distinguished audience. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to Mr. Ralf Nickel, vice President of the Council, and Director Mr. Guntram Wolff and his team for organizing this event.
Today we are living at a time when not only natural but also geopolitical tectonic shifts are taking place all around the world. Deepening geopolitical instability, growing tensions and unpredictability are weakening the world order and international security system, creating even bigger challenges, especially for a country like Armenia, with democracy in a complex region, making us more vulnerable in our complicated region.
Dear attendees,
We witnessed the first sprouts of today’s challenges and the collapse of the European security architecture in our region back in 2020 when Azerbaijan unleashed a war against Nagorno-Karabakh.
After the signing of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement, Azerbaijan not only didn’t abandon its bellicose policies and threats, but also carried out new aggression, this time against the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia in May 2021, November 2021 and September 2022.
During the last aggression - on September 13-14, 2022, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military attack targeting the military and civilian infrastructure of Armenia using heavy artillery, missile systems, and drones. As a result, the Armenian side had 225 victims, including 3 civilians. More than 150 square kilometers of the sovereign territories of Armenia were occupied.
Today, I wouldn’t like to go deep into the details of the aggressions of 2020, 2021, 2022, but it is impossible to ignore the evidences of multiple cases of torture, mutilation of captured or already dead Armenian servicemen (including servicewomen) and other atrocities by Azerbaijani military forces. The horrible videos of the Azeri militaries committing “ISIS-style” war crimes by executing Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) should be acknowledged and addressed by the international community. Another issue is the engagement of the mercenaries from Syria by Azerbaijan.
During the aggression of September 2022, when the external security system of Armenia didn’t work, we requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that was held on September 15, 2022. During the meeting, the UN Security Council member states noted that the use of force is totally unacceptable, explicitly named the aggressor - Azerbaijan, highlighted the importance of adherence to the norms of international humanitarian law, emphasizing also the fact that civilian infrastructure on the territory of Armenia was targeted.
An important step towards de-escalation of the situation was a quadrilateral meeting of President Macron, President Michel, President Aliyev and me, in Prague on October 6, 2022, where an agreement was reached on deploying short-term EU monitoring capacity along the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
When this mission’s mandate ended on December 19, 2022, at Armenia's request the EU Council made a decision to deploy a new, fully-fledged civilian mission (EUMA) on the territory of the Republic of Armenia for a two-year period.
On behalf of the Government of Armenia, I would like to express our gratitude to the EU and its member states, particularly to the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for its support to our request. The Mission was launched on 20th February, and I have already met the Head of the Mission, your compatriot with extensive experience in international deployments – Mr. Markus Ritter in Yerevan.
The Mission shall play a crucial role in ensuring security on the ground and stability in the region, as well as timely and reliable reporting on the current situation to our partners in the EU and its member states.
Dear colleagues,
Azerbaijan, in gross violation of the provisions of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, has being illegally blocked the Lachin corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia since December 12, 2022.
The blockade resulted in a humanitarian crisis. 120,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh had been cut off from natural gas, electricity, food, medical and other vital supplies.
Due to a severe shortage of food and other necessary goods authorities of Nagorno Karabakh had to take desperate measures, issued food coupons and are rationing certain foodstuffs. Population receives only erratic power supplies, from local electricity capacities. Universities, schools and kindergartens were shut down, due to which more than 30 thousand students and children were deprived of their right to education.
On December 20, 2022, upon the request of the Republic of Armenia, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was held on the situation caused by the blockade of the Lachin corridor.
The overwhelming majority of the UN Security Council members made clear demands to stop the blockade of the corridor by Azerbaijan and to ensure the access of international organizations to Nagorno-Karabakh. Dozens of countries and organizations issued a targeted condemnation of the blockade of the Lachin Corridor and urged Azerbaijan to end it. The Republic of Armenia has been putting efforts to send a UN, and OSCE fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and Lachin Corridor.
Also, the Republic of Armenia filed a request to the International Court of Justice of the United Nations under Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to apply provisional measures to unblock the Lachin Corridor. On 22 of February, early this year, the International Court of Justice issued its orders to Azerbaijan to take all measures at its disposal to ensure the unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.
Unfortunately, up to now Azerbaijan failed to comply with the decision of the ICJ and the traffic through the Lachin corridor is still disrupted. Though the natural gas supply is restored, electricity supply to Nagorno-Karabakh, having been cut off since 9 January 2023, has not been restored yet. Food supplies are still carried out by coupons and people are deprived of critical medical care. Only Red cross and Russian peacekeepers are able to deliver limited amount of food and necessary lifesaving goods to Nagorno Karabakh, and transport people with healthcare emergency needs to Armenian hospitals."
