VIDEO: Azerbaijan is Doing Everything to Sabotage the Baku-Stepanakert Dialogue, Says Pashinyan

Azerbaijan is doing everything to sabotage the Baku-Stepanakert dialogue. This statement was made today, March 16, during a government meeting by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

“Despite the agreements reached at the international level, Azerbaijan is declaring, after only two meetings, that it will discuss the issue of reintegration with the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, whereas the international agreement stipulates that the discussion should focus on the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Against this backdrop, it becomes increasingly important to activate the international mechanism for the Stepanakert-Baku dialogue, because it is now evident that without such a mechanism, the agenda will fail and be forgotten by Baku,” he said.

The Prime Minister noted that it is also concerning for Armenia that the international mechanism established under point 7 of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, has not yet been activated, which states that “internally displaced persons and refugees will return to the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions under the control of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.”

“This means that international mechanisms for the return of Armenians from the regions of Hadrut, Shushi, Martuni, Martakert, Shahumyan, Getashen, Lachin, and other areas adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh must be activated. I have instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to initiate official negotiations with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,” he added.

Pashinyan stated that, in this regard, the state bodies are also addressing representatives of Armenians who have undergone ethnic cleansing in Baku, Shirvan, Sumgait, Kirovabad, Khanlar, Shamkhor, Nakhichevan, and other regions of Azerbaijan, complaining about why the issue of their rights and the question of returning to their homes with the accompaniment of international peacekeeping forces is not being raised.

The issue, according to Pashinyan, is that point 7 of the November 9 trilateral statement pertains solely to the refugees and internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh and its directly adjacent areas, but this “is not an obstacle for representatives of the Armenian population subjected to ethnic cleansing in Baku, Shirvan, Sumgait, Kirovabad, Khanlar, Shamkhor, Nakhichevan, and other regions of Azerbaijan to self-organize and defend their property, return, and other rights in international forums.”