Regional peace and development։ A strategic goal for Armenia
On the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the end of Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh an opinion article of Ambassador Balayan has been published in the Dutch renown Nederlands Dagblad newspaper.
Today is exactly one year since the aggressive war unleashed against the Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey and its jihadist mercenaries was stopped. It is not a secret that the military operations were accompanied with numerous war crimes by Azerbaijan, including extrajudicial killings, ISIS-style beheadings, well-documented by Amnesty and the HRW, that claimed the lives of several thousands, including civilians.
To this date no independent investigation into the war crimes has been carried out. Unfortunately, the European Union in general and the Netherlands in particular didn’t act sufficiently to prevent this tragedy and address its consequences including sanctioning the responsibles of atrocities until they are held accountable
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Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Stef Blok stated that the war crimes need to be investigated. A statement, which filled me with hope that the Netherlands, as a staunch promoter of human rights, will take an action in accordance with international humanitarian law and dozens of motions adopted by Tweede Kamer during and after the aggression.
After the Trilateral statement on ceasefire, the corrupt and authoritarian Aliyev regime of Azerbaijan, inspired by the impunity and double standard approach, refuses to to fulfill its commitments by periodically violating cease-fire regime and shelling civilian settlements, invading Armenia, continuously erasing centuries-old Armenian heritage on the territories it currently occupies, dehumanising Armenians through racist statements, rejecting to repatriate about many dozens Armenian PoWs. Amidst all these challenges Armenia held another free and transparent elections in June, and the Government declared the establishment of regional peace and cooperation as Armenia’s strategic goal.
We fully realize that the path is very difficult and long, and the prerequisite is the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which will lead to a new era in the region and beyond. We believe that the use of force and its consequences cannot be interpreted as a way to reconciliation. On the contrary, this is a very dangerous manner of thinking.
Our approach is supported by all our international partners, however, Azerbaijan’s territorial claims against Armenia, its state-sponsored policy (documented by the Council of Europe) of Armenophobia are contrary to the expectations of our partners, including the Netherlands and the European Union and most importantly, those are hampering the reconciliation and peace process.
To pave the way for true reconciliation Azerbaijan has to end the decades-long malicious practice of poisoining Azerbaijani generations with Nazi-style propagnda of hatred and animosity against worldwide Armenians. For this purpose my Government has instituted proceedings against Azerbaijan before the International Court of Justice for violations Convention for Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
I believe that true reconciliation and peaceful coexistence will only be possible with the elimination of the atmosphere of impunity, countering the Aliyev regime’s confidence to continue its Armenophobic actions and when the responsibility takes over the impunity.
