Armenian Ambassador calls for international support in immediate and unconditional return of all prisoners of war kept in Azerbaijan
Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN Ambassador Mher Margaryan, has made a statement at UN Security Council high-level open debate on “Enhancing cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations”
As the Foreign Ministry reported, Ambassador Margaryan in his speech has voiced the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression launched against Artsakh in September 2020.
"While in many parts of the world the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire led to reducing of tensions, in our region the global crisis caused by the pandemic was instrumentalized to unleash violence, mass atrocities and destruction. The premeditated large-scale war launched by Azerbaijan in September 2020, with direct support of Turkey and involvement of foreign terrorist fighters, has been the biggest military escalation in times of pandemic.
There was no shortage of early warning signs of the long-standing objective of Azerbaijan to resolve the conflict by force. Instead of committing, in good faith, to the peace process under the auspices of the internationally mandated negotiation format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, Azerbaijan resorted to uncontrolled and unabated military build-up and large-scale unnotified military exercises jointly with Turkey in violation of its obligations under the CFE Treaty and Vienna Document of 2011, promoting anti-Armenian hatred and glorifying hate crime perpetrators.
Azerbaijan continuously failed to respect its obligations under the ceasefire agreements of 1994 and 1995 with Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, rejecting proposals of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs on risk reduction and confidence-building measures, in particular establishment of an investigative mechanism into ceasefire violations, expansion of the number of international monitors and their activities, refraining from provocative actions, including the use of snipers and subversive groups and advancing positions along the Line of Contact and the state border," noted the Ambassador.
Armenian diplomat also called for the international community support to demand full compliance by Azerbaijan with the obligations under the International humanitarian law and the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020, particularly with respect to immediate and unconditional return of all prisoners of war, civilian hostages and detained persons.