Armenian FM speaks at UN General Assembly session
17:44 29.09.2013
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian made a statement at the
General Debate of the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations
General Assembly in New York.
`Mr. President,
I would like to join the previous speakers in congratulating John Ashe
on his election as the President of the 68th session of the United
Nations General Assembly and to thank the outgoing President Mr. Vuk
Jeremic.
Mr. President,
During the past two decades the international community has been
making great strides towards development of a cohesive approach to
address the political, social and economic challenges the world
community is facing nowadays.
We need to analyze our commitments with a view of the difficulties
that arose while implementing the Millennium Development Goals. The
world economic and financial crises had its share in detracting from
the charted path. However, it revealed some of the underlying issues
that were either overlooked or underestimated, which were important in
the overall success. It became clear once again that no country can
achieve in isolation the MDGs in the world of growing interdependence
and interconnectedness.
The UN Conference on Sustainable Development -RIO+20, enriched our
understanding of the ways of achieving the overall progress towards
the political, social and economic development.
Armenia welcomes the inclusion of `Post-2015 Development Agenda:
Setting the Stage’ as the theme and main focus of our deliberations.
Mr. President,
Despite the fact that most of us share the understanding that
elimination of violence and terror is essential for building peaceful,
sustainable and prosperous societies, peace seems to remain an elusive
phenomenon in many parts of the world.
Armenia remains alarmed by the worsening of the humanitarian situation
in Syria. The number of refugees Armenia continues to receive already
exceeds ten thousand, but tens of thousands of Syrian-Armenians still
remain in that country that has become their second home after the
Genocide of 1915, and they are struggling for their survival in
unbearable conditions together with their Syrian countrymen.
Armenia welcomes the resolution of the Security Council 2118 adopted
unanimously yesterday based on the agreement reached in Geneva between
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and US Secretary of State Kerry, which
could lead to the elimination of chemical weapons and exclusion of
their use in Syria and could pave the way to a political solution of
the Syrian crisis, putting an end to the sufferings of the Syrian
people.
Mr. President,
To our strong belief, there is no alternative to the peaceful solution
of the conflicts. Resolution of conflicts requires political will and
determination.
Three months ago, on June 18th the Presidents of the three Co-Chair
countries of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, United States and France,
made a new statement on Nagorno-Karabakh in the framework of G8 Summit
in Enniskillen.
In Armenia we welcomed this statement saying that, as the Co-Chairs,
we continue to believe that the elements outlined in the statements of
the heads of the Co-Chair countries over the last five years can be
the basis for reaching a fair and lasting settlement of the conflict.
We share the position of the Co-Chair countries, that those elements
should be seen as an integrated whole and that any attempt to select
some elements over others would make it impossible to achieve a
solution. We absolutely agree that peoples should be prepared for
peace, not war. Unfortunately until now the Azerbaijani leadership is
doing just the opposite and is increasing warmongering and
anti-Armenian hate-speech on a daily basis using even the highest
podium of the United Nations.
We absolutely agree with the heads of the three Co-Chair countries, of
the three permanent members of the Security Council, that the use of
force will not resolve the conflict, and that only a negotiated
settlement can lead to peace and stability. However, by the
unprecedented accumulation of offensive weaponry in massive scale
Azerbaijan seriously endangers regional and international security,
despite its membership in the UN Security Council.
Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia has on several occasions reiterated and in
response to the Enniskillen appeal of the Presidents of USA, Russian
Federation and France, once again re-affirmed its commitment to the
principles of international law, particularly the non-use of force or
the threat of force, equal rights and self-determination of peoples,
and territorial integrity.
Azerbaijan keeps misinterpreting the 1993 Security Council
resolutions, the core requirement of which was the immediate cessation
of all hostilities and hostile acts and the establishment of a durable
cease-fire. Azerbaijan not only failed to comply with this
requirement, but further intensified its aggression and the military
operations against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia using mercenaries
closely linked to notorious terrorist organizations. It is not
surprising that after the ceasefire agreement signed in 1994, the
mediators, the three permanent members of the Security Council never
made any reference to those resolutions.
Azerbaijan is pretending that the international community shares its
approaches and it shares the approaches of the international
community. In reality, Azerbaijan is continuously rejecting all
proposals of the internationally mandated OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair
countries. Baku rejected all versions of the Basic Principles of the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict proposed by the Co-Chairs
of the Minsk Group, including those presented at the Kazan (June
2011), Sochi (March 2011), Astrakhan (October 2011) and Saint
Petersburg (June 2010) summits.
Baku refused not only the Basic Principles, but also
confidence-building measures proposed by the Co-Chairs on
consolidation of ceasefire, withdrawal of the snipers from the line of
contact and the establishment of a mechanism for investigation of the
ceasefire violations.
Azerbaijan not only obstructs confidence-building measures, but also
periodically organizes provocations on the line of contact with
Nagorno-Karabakh and on the border with Armenia, which result in new
casualties.
During the previous session of the General Assembly I spoke about the
release and glorification of an axe-murderer Safarov by the
Azerbaijani leadership, which was strongly condemned by the entire
international community, by the United Nations’ and other
international organizations’ human rights commissions. Even today,
more than a year after it, Azerbaijani leadership continues to declare
that what they did `is just very good’ and dares to criticize the
stance of the international community. This clearly demonstrates the
deepening gap of perceptions between the Azerbaijani leadership and
the international community about what is good and what is bad.
Most recently Azerbaijani authorities on national level have
ostracized the eminent Azerbaijani writer Aylisli for publishing a
novel, where he talks about the pogroms against Armenians in Baku,
Sumgait and other parts of Azerbaijan. His books were publicly burnt
and the writer had to leave the country facing threats to his life.
Just last week the President of Azerbaijan once again came up with new
threats against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and claimed Armenian
territories, including almost three thousand years old capital city
Yerevan.
Regardless of Azerbaijan’s destructive stance, Armenia will continue
its efforts towards the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
exclusively through peaceful means and on the basis of the purposes,
principles and norms reflected in the UN Charter and the provisions of
L’Aquila, Muskoka, Deauville, Los Cabos and Enniskillen statements of
the three Co-Chair countries’ Presidents.
Mr. President,
This March, the Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution
`On Prevention of Genocide,’ initiated by Armenia and co-sponsored by
over 60 countries. The recognition, condemnation and prevention of
genocide remains a priority for Armenia and we will take necessary
actions to prevent new occurrences of the crime of genocide, while
keeping high on the agenda the issue of responsibility for the crime
against humanity and its denial.
As a nation that has survived the first genocide of the twentieth
century, Armenia unequivocally welcomes the clear position adopted by
the UN member states in precluding any possibility of immunity or
pardon for perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
Mr. President,
Since May of this year Armenia has assumed the Chairmanship of the
Council of Europe – a regional organization that remains a key partner
of the United Nations in our shared global quest united behind the
principles of fundamental freedoms, defense and promotion of human
rights and continuous efforts for peace and security.
The cooperation between these two organizations is also well
established in the fields of the fight against racism, xenophobia,
hate-speech and intolerance. These issues are also among Armenia’s
chairmanship priorities that were defined in response to the
challenges that member states of both the United Nations and the
Council of Europe are facing today.
Mr. President,
Armenia has committed itself to the strengthening of the institutional
capacities of the United Nations. We support the United Nations reform
process and are ready to bring our feasible contribution to it. We
believe that the reforms provide an opportunity to enhance the role of
this organization in addressing the crucial issues facing the world.
Thank you.’
From: A. Papazian
http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/09/29/armenian-fm-speaks-at-un-general-assembly-session/