The French Foreign Minister's visit to the country comes at a difficult time, when Armenia is facing serious regional security threats and challenges. Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced this during a joint press conference.
“Despite the criticisms of the international community and the legally binding ruling of the International Court of Justice of February 22, after blocking the Lachin Corridor for more than 4 months, on April 23, Azerbaijan, grossly violating provision 6 of the November 9, 2020 statement, has already officially blocked the Lachin corridor, taking steps to install a checkpoint in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers.
This is another violation of the trilateral statement, but perhaps extremely dangerous and flagrant in its consequences. It is impossible not to see the real threat of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. This should also be clear to the international community, and in this context, I have once again emphasized the need for UN member states with an international security mandate to take effective steps, including sending an international mission to the Nagorno-Karabakh and Lachin Corridor, to ensure the unimpeded access of international humanitarian organizations,” said Mirzoyan.
The Foreign Minister also reminded that even 2 years after the signing of the statement of November 9, 2020, Azerbaijan refuses to return all Armenian prisoners of war and hostages.
“Despite Armenia's readiness to solve the existing problems through constructive negotiations, Azerbaijan continues the occupation of the sovereign territory of Armenia and continuous aggressive actions, which are provocative and contradict the statements made as a result of the Prague and Sochi meetings,” he said.
At the end of the speech, Mirzoyan mentioned that Armenia is committed to making efforts to establish stability in the region, for this purpose, Armenia continues negotiations on the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan.
