Address of Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

26 November, 2014

On November 25 Edward Nalbandian delivered an address on the foreign policy of Armenia at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Representatives of state agencies of Sweden, diplomatic missions, research centres and universities, political analysts attended the event. Minister Nalbandian answered numerous questions raised by the attendees regarding the foreign policy of Armenia, Armenia’s approaches on regional and international issues.

Referring to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Minister Nalbandian mentioned, that Armenia shares OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs states’ approach, that there is no alternative to peaceful resolution.

Edward Nalbandian particularly said:

“The more the international community appeals to the sides of the conflict to prepare populations for peace and not for war, the more we hear from the Azerbaijani leadership increasing bellicose warmongering, anti-Armenian hate-speech, persecution of those civil society activists who pursue confidence building and reconciliation projects. The more the international community is calling on the sides to withdraw snipers from the line of contact and to create a mechanism of investigation of ceasefire violations, the more sniper shootings, provocative incidents, subversive acts are coming from the Azerbaijani side, resulting in numerous casualties.

The more oil and gas revenues are enriching the Azerbaijani budget, the more weaponry and armament are purchased by Baku. Over the last decade, Azerbaijan's military budget has plummeted from 136 million to 3.6 billion USD, more than 25 times by 2014, and Baku now is bragging that during the upcoming year the military budget will increase by 27% to reach 4.8 billion USD. The disproportionate military spending and acquisition of excess armaments by Azerbaijan poses a serious threat to regional and international stability and security.

Baku rejected all versions of the Basic Principles of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict proposed by the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group, including those presented at the Saint-Petersburg (June 2010), Astrakhan (October 2010), Sochi (March 2011) and the last one in Kazan (June 2011) summits. The Kazan summit was followed by almost 2 years of stagnation in the peace process. During this period Azerbaijan increased ceasefire violations and provocative actions along the Line of Contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan and along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

But the most notorious case was the pardoning and glorification of Azerbaijani officer Safarov who beheaded a sleeping Armenian officer with an axe while both were participating in a NATO course in Budapest.

When in Vienna last November, thanks to the efforts of the Co-Chairs, top level meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan resumed some time after the notorious “Safarov case”, there was some hope that the negotiations could move forward. Unfortunately, those expectations were not met. Azerbaijan did everything to undermine the situation in the conflict zone.

The Azerbaijani side made several subversive incursions, which resulted in many deaths, drastically raising the tension on the ground.

An Armenian villager who had mistakenly wandered into the territory of Azerbaijan was arrested, humiliated in front of cameras, a tactic used by notorious terrorist organizations, and was found dead the following day.

Inside Azerbaijan the harassment of eminent journalists, civil society activists, representatives of intelligentsia is an expression of “witch-hunt,” as these dissidents are represented as “Armenian spies", "enemies of the nation.” Thus the external “enemy’s image” is used to demonize, discredit the opponents of the Baku regime.

This all seriously has endangered the negotiation process.

Link to Article:
http://mfa.am/en/press-releases/item/2014/11/26/min_sipri26112014/

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