On October 20, Edward Nalbandian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia received Diaspora Armenian journalists from 27 countries, who gathered in Yerevan to participate at the 8th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists. Hranush Hakobyan, the Minister of Diaspora of Armenia, attended the meeting.
Welcoming the guests at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Nalbandian emphasized the importance of such meetings for sharing first-hand information on Armenia’s foreign policy with fellow Armenians from around the World.
Edward Nalbandian briefed on foreign policy priorities, particularly, on Armenia’s leading role in condemning genocides and preventing new crimes against humanity, presented the details of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, the developments in the Middle East, Syrian crisis and the assistance provided to the Syrian Armenians.
Referring to the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process Minister stressed: “I have said it before, but with regard to the recent statements coming from Baku I have to repeat that some in Azerbaijan have lost the sense of reality and to such an extent that they are trying to impose the myths concocted for internal consumption not only to their society, but also to the international community.
Read also
Baku claims about its readiness for compromises. What kind of compromises does it refer to? Is it about security assurances to Nagorno-Karabakh, or peaceful co-existence of the two nations, as they put it? In other words it implies that there will not be a peace unless you do what we say. Doesn’t it sound more like a threat, rather than a compromise? Do they consider granting autonomy as a compromise? Azerbaijan never had any control over Nagorno-Karabakh after the collapse of the Soviet Union, let alone nowadays. How it can offer autonomy under its control? Does it want to sell this as a compromise as well? Artsakh currently enjoys much more from what Azerbaijan offers as a compromise.
In their recent statements the leadership of Azerbaijan asserts that the proposals of the Co-Chairs are in line with their approaches. However, just few days ago the President of Azerbaijan confessed that the international community forces him to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, but he opposes to that. If the approaches are so consonant then the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh should be recognized rather than opposed.
It is obvious that Azerbaijan is entangled in its approaches and needs assistance to find a way out of this situation. Azerbaijan should accept the assistance of the international mediators offered by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship – Russia, the United States and France for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.
The leaders of the Co-Chair countries outlined their approaches in five well-known statements on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution. If they are in line with the stance of Azerbaijan, then why up until now it spares no effort to refrain from accepting as a basis for negotiations the principles and elements enshrined as an integrated whole in those statements? Furthermore, Baku shies away from making any reference to those statements, as it was the case during the Eastern Partnership Riga Summit, from which the Azerbaijani delegation simply vanished.
After six months since Azerbaijan’s aggression in April, all of a sudden, a new myth has been invented in Baku on who allegedly unleashed the military actions, gravely violated the international humanitarian law and committed barbarism, trying to put the blame on the Armenian side for all actions, which they were proudly disseminating through media and demonstrating via social networks, while granting high awards to the perpetrators of those crimes.
One can get an impression that the high level officials in Azerbaijan are competing with each other in the art of telling lies and misleading their society. However, we all know who as a rule wins the competitions in Azerbaijan.
The mythology of the Azerbaijani leadership does not limit with the issues related just to Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to Baku, all democratic norms without exception are respected in Azerbaijan. For example, the civil society is flourishing. However, it turns out that the UN Special Rapporteur does not share that opinion. At the end of the September he stated that that Azerbaijan’s civil society has been paralyzed by the government and has faced the worst situation since the independence.
Baku claims that the media is totally free in Azerbaijan. Whereas according to the Committee on Protection of Journalists, Azerbaijan is rated among the ten most censored countries of the world. Moreover, it occupies the fifth “honorable” place. In the 2016 World Press Freedom Index Azerbaijan ranks 163 among 179 countries.
The leadership of Azerbaijan likes to repeat that they are building a multicultural, multi-religious society based on tolerance. How can this claim be compatible with the 2016 report of European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe, where serious concerns are expressed not only over the state sponsored hate speech against Armenians, but also the discrimination of the ethnic and religious minorities.
The most favorite balloon of the Azerbaijani leadership, regarding the country’s economic situation, also exploded last year due to serious shocks experienced as a result of the fall in oil and gas price. National currency – manat suffered the world’s biggest drop, according to Bloomberg agency. It turns out that Azerbaijan was on the oil and gas needle, and when the needle popped the balloon, the air started to gradually leak out. This was the whole success they have so cherished.
Now, I believe, needless to ask whom these falsifications are able to impress.”
