Armenia is ready to resume the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process in accordance with the April 13 OSCE Minsk Group statement, Acting Prime Minister of the republic Nikol Pashinyan said at a government meeting on Thursday.
"Azerbaijan is trying to create the impression that Armenia is against peace and the peace agreement. But Armenia has already welcomed the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on April 13 several times. Let me remind you that there are three principles at the heart of the Karabakh conflict that are well known to the parties: self-determination of peoples, exclusion of threat or use of force and territorial integrity," he said.
Pashinyan said the Armenian government calls on CSTO members and the OSCE Minsk Group to pay attention to the victims on the border with Azerbaijan. "Over the past two months, we have had two victims on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Expressing my condolences to the families and friends of the victims, I draw the attention of our CSTO partners and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to that fact," he said.
After the end of military operations last fall, when seven districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh went under Baku's control, Armenia's Syunik and Gegharkunik regions started to border with Azerbaijan. The situation there escalated on May 12. Then the Defense Ministry of Armenia said that in order to "correct the border" Azerbaijani armed forces tried to carry out "certain works" in one of the borderline regions of the Syunik region, penetrating into the territory of Armenia by 3.5 kilometers. According to the ministry, after the measures taken by Armenian units, the Azerbaijani military stopped these works. Since then the sides report provocations.
Yerevan said it appealed to the CSTO in connection with the escalation of the situation on the border. The organization consists of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In turn, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh offered their de-escalation plan, which suggests that the parties must withdraw troops and begin with the help of the Minsk Group the process of demarcation and delimitation of the joint border. The OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, the US and France, was created as a format for finding a peaceful settlement to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. It also includes Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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Photo: Alexander Ryumin / TASS
Based on materials from TASS