Armenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement responding to the threats made by the President of Azerbaijan.
It reads:
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia draws the attention of the international community to the repeated belligerent statements made by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on May 28, which are aimed at aborting the efforts of the Republic of Armenia and international partners aimed at establishing peace, stability and security in the region.
Contrary to the UN Charter, the written commitment to refrain from the use of force or the threat of force made by the tripartite statement of Sochi on October 31, 2022, similar oral commitments undertaken on other platforms, as well as the ongoing negotiations on the normalization of bilateral relations, the President of Azerbaijan is again threatening the Republic of Armenia with force and ethnic cleansing of the Nagorno Karabakh population.
It is necessary to record that the leadership of Azerbaijan continues to violate and ignore the previously reached agreements, including the provisions of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, as well as the fundamental principles of international law. This is evidenced by President Aliyev’s words that by controlling the Lachin Corridor, Azerbaijan disrupted the connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Moreover, in the same context, the latter openly threatens to carry out ethnic cleansing if the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh do not “learn lessons” from the blocking of the Lachin Corridor.
Unfortunately, violations of agreements and commitments are not limited to this. Instead of starting a dialogue with the representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh within the framework of the international mechanism, the President of Azerbaijan threatens them with reprisals and criminal prosecution. At the same time, it is shown that Azerbaijan does not want to address the existing problems, but to move forward on the principle of “there are no Nagorno Karabakh Armenians, there is no Nagorno Karabakh problem”. Such way of action also contradicts the logic of the current negotiations, including the approaches of the actors carrying out a mediation mission the settlement process.
It is indisputable that the recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan cannot be interpreted as the authority to carry out ethnic cleansing against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Republic of Armenia draws the attention of the international community, including the mediating actors, to the fact that the president of Azerbaijan, with his statement, is preparing the ground for another aggressive action against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh and depriving them of the right to live freely, safely and with dignity in their homeland.
It is noteworthy that the president of Azerbaijan not only makes genocidal threats against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, but also calls into question the independence and territorial integrity of Armenia. In fact, the president of Azerbaijan challenges the entire civilized society by threatening to occupy new sovereign territories of Armenia by force. Moreover, it is emphasized that even the presence of the EU observation mission along the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot stop the ambitions of Azerbaijan’s territorial claims against Armenia.
Armenia is steadfast in its chosen path of establishing peace in the region. Unfortunately, as can be seen from the aggressive rhetoric and actions of the leadership of Azerbaijan, that state does not see the solution to the problems through the recognition of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia with the borders defined by the Alma-Ata Declaration and addressing the rights and security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, but through the use of threats and military force.
In order to prevent such developments, all partners interested in the peace and stability of the South Caucasus are obliged to come up with unequivocal and unequivocal assessments."
