Nalbandyan slams Baku over militarist rhetoric
30.04.2015,
13:41
Armenia’s minister of foreign affairs Edward Nalbandyan warned the international mediators of the escalation of war rhetoric and distortion of the idea of the negotiations by Azerbaijan.
YEREVAN, April 30. /ARKA/. Armenia’s minister of foreign affairs Edward Nalbandyan warned the international mediators of the escalation of war rhetoric and distortion of the idea of the negotiations by Azerbaijan.
Nalbandyan had a meeting with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick (USA) and Pierre Andrier (France), as well as with Personal Representative to OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andjey Kasprshik in Paris, as part of his official visit to France.
The sides discussed the Karabakh peace process, says the report.
Armenia’s foreign minister drew the attention of the mediators to the fact that Azerbaijan had been using war rhetoric at the highest level over the last weeks, making statements that distorted the essence and contents of the talks and grossly violated the ceasefire regime along the contact line with Karabakh and at its border with Armenia.
“Azerbaijan’s authorities respond to appeals for preparing the societies for peace in a strange way – they publish on the internet the video of the subversive operation carried out by themselves,” Nalbandyan said.
The Karabakh conflict started in 1988 when prevailingly Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh declared withdrawal from Azerbaijan. In a referendum on December 10, 1991, 99.89% of Nagorno-Karabakh population voted for independence from Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan responded by large-scale military operations that led to loss of control not only over Nagorno-Karabakh itself, but also over seven adjoining areas. About 25-30 thousand people were killed and about a million had to leave their homes during the military operations. A trilateral cease-fire agreement was signed on May 12, 2004, and has been followed since then.
The ongoing Karabakh peace process started in 1992 under auspices of OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the USA, Russia and France. –0--
