Armenia has no territorial claims against any of its neighbors - NA Speaker
YEREVAN, March 13. /ARKA/. Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan has rejected accusations that Armenia has territorial claims against its neighbors.
‘Some claim that Armenia seeks to expand its territory. Let me be clear - Armenia has no territorial claims against any of its neighbors," Simonyan said in a speech at the session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Bahrain.
He noted that the cornerstone of Armenia's foreign policy is to maintain peaceful relations with all countries. "However, we face many threats. Tensions persist in the South Caucasus. Since May 12, 2021, neighboring Azerbaijan has been violating Armenia's territorial integrity and illegally occupied about 150 square kilometers of its territory," Simonyan stressed.
He recalled that Azerbaijan continues the blockade of the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia and the world to Nagorno-Karabakh and its ethnic Armenian population.
"The blockade is a flagrant violation of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, which states that the Republic of Azerbaijan guarantees the safe movement of citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions along the Lachin corridor. This road has been blocked by dozens of Azerbaijanis masquerading as 'environmental activists' from December 12, 2022," Simonyan pointed out, adding that some 120,000 ethnic Armenians in Karabakh are left without basic goods and services, deprived of vital medicines and medical care, while electricity and gas outages has led to terrible hardships.
"Unfortunately, Azerbaijan is not limited to spreading disinformation and the harassment described above. Just a few days ago, on March 5, three Nagorno-Karabakh police officers were killed and another wounded in a pre-planned ambush ordered by Azerbaijan," he said.
Racial and religious intolerance and violence against people are unjustifiable, the Speaker stressed.
Simonyan also recalled that the Azerbaijani authorities have ignored the calls of the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, EU leaders, representatives of Amnesty International and Helsinki Commission, as well as the rulings of ECHR and UN International Court of Justice to unblock the Lachin corridor. --0--
