“I think the application sent by the Armenian Foreign Ministry to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs for the conclusion of a peace agreement between the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan implies a new process. It should be noted that in its statements, the Co-Chairs expressed their support for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, demarcation and delimitation,” Nelly Baghdasaryan, Advisor to the President of Artsakh on International Relations, told Aravot in response to the question of how Artsakh views the process launched to normalize the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Until a new process is launched on this issue, we tend to comment on the decades-long mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to resolve the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, which has not been canceled so far. After the tripartite agreement of November 10, 2020, the co-chairing countries have repeatedly stressed that the conflict is not resolved, and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ statement of April 13, 2021 stated that “special attention should be paid to the achievement of a final comprehensive, lasting settlement based on the principles of the elements known to the parties.”
There has been no announcement to cancel it so far,” she said, adding that in the January 14, 2022 statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “the demarcation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan does not concern the settlement of the Karabakh region, it is a purely bilateral issue.”
Baghdasaryan emphasized that “the need for a comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing” was reaffirmed by French President Emanuel Macron. “We can not rule out that the Ukrainian crisis may make some changes in both geopolitical and regional issues, but at the moment, based on the facts, we must note that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have not canceled or denied any process or statement on the conflict. Any other process, a solution with a logic contradicting the above-mentioned facts, which may be outside the logic of exercising the right of the people of the Republic of Artsakh to self-determination, will undoubtedly lead to ethnic cleansing and annihilation of the population of the Republic of Artsakh by Azerbaijan,” she said.
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Nelly GRIGORYAN
