Azerbaijan: "OSCE Minsk Group openly admits its inability to function"
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded to PM Pashinyan
“If Armenia really wants peace, then it must show concrete political will and take concrete steps towards peace, and not waste time on reviving a format the effectiveness of which has always been low, and whose participants now openly admit the impossibility of its functioning,” the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan said in a statement, which came as a response to the statements of the Prime Minister of Armenia during an online press conference.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan issued a statement in response to the statements of the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan during an online press conference on June 27, 2022.
“A number of statements made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at an online press conference on June 27, 2022 in connection with the process of normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations cast doubt on the desire of this country to establish sustainable peace in the region”, the statement read.
“The fact that the leader of the country, which for about 30 years held part of the territories of Azerbaijan under military occupation and committed destruction in these territories, accuses Azerbaijan of pursuing a policy of blockade in these years, does not fit into any legal and moral framework.
We remind Prime Minister Pashinyan: despite the occupation policy of Armenia and the “destroy everything” approach applied by Armenia on the territory of Azerbaijan for decades, Azerbaijan was a supporter and initiator of the normalization of relations between the two states after the liberation of the territories”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan noted.
It is emphasized that “it was the head of the Azerbaijani state who, at the post-conflict stage, proposed the signing of a peace treaty on the basis of strict observance of the principles of international law. The Azerbaijani side even presented to the opposite side the basic principles on which the agreement should be based”.
“If Azerbaijan, as Pashinyan claims, wanted war, then there would probably be no need for these steps. If Azerbaijan wanted war, it would not have made great efforts to reconstruct and restore the territories destroyed by Armenia for 30 years, and would not have carried out this great work.
The Azerbaijani side not only makes statements about the delimitation of the borders between the two countries, opening all communications in the region and signing a future peace treaty between the parties, but also implements what it declares by its actions and concrete steps. For many years, it was the Azerbaijani side that stated that the establishment of normal relations in the region and the opening of all communications would be beneficial for Armenia.
The fact that the Armenian side finally realized this, and the Prime Minister stated that “the opening of communications is beneficial to Armenia”, attracts attention as a new approach of the Armenian leadership. Apparently, the acceptance of the facts by Armenia takes some time. We hope that it will not take much time for Armenia to realize the effectiveness of the functioning of the Zangezur corridor, which has already become a reality.
As for tripartite statements, the obligations assumed by the parties under these documents and their fulfillment are obvious. Armenia, sending saboteurs to the territory of Azerbaijan, not withdrawing illegal armed formations from the territory of Azerbaijan, delaying the unblocking of communications for a long time, grossly violates the implementation of these statements.
The Prime Minister of Armenia, without referring to specific facts, stated that “the Azerbaijani side boycotted the meeting at least once.” If you start listing the meetings proposed so far with the participation of international mediators at the post-conflict stage and violated by Armenia under various pretexts, as well as postponed due to provocations committed by the Armenian side 1-2 hours before their start, then the list will be very long,” noted in the statement.
On June 27, a meeting of representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia was to be held in Brussels, but official Baku refused it.
“If the Armenian side makes contradictory statements every day, continues to talk about the mechanism of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, and makes territorial claims against Azerbaijan, then what is the point of holding meetings? And the statements of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar must be verified”, the Azeri media quoted the diplomatic source as saying.
At the end of the document, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry drew attention to Armenia’s attempts to negotiate with official Baku through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group:
“If Armenia really wants peace, then it must show concrete political will and take concrete steps towards peace, and not waste time on reviving the format, the effectiveness of which has always been low, and whose participants now openly admit the impossibility of its functioning.”
