Arms supply from Slovakia to Azerbaijan is violation of international law, says Armenian foreign ministry

ArmenPress, Armenia

YEREVAN, JULY 31, ARMENPRESS. Armenia continues to follow the illegal arms supply issue from Slovakia to Azerbaijan, Armenian foreign ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan said today at a briefing.

He said that in addition to bilateral channels Armenia has also raised the issue in OSCE circles, taking into account that Slovakia will chair the OSCE in 2019.

Asked by reporters how Armenia is dealing with the issue of two CSTO member states continuing to supply Azerbaijan with weapons, Balayan said: “We have raised this issue to our Belarus and Russian colleagues. Our stance is not to concentrate on the supplies from one country, for example, the supplies from Slovakia specifically are a violation of international law: when an end user certificate is given for one country, but everyone knows that these weapons turn out in another country. And in the country where these weapons end up, they start boasting, saying – look, we acquired it in a devious way. The criminal code of Slovakia has an appropriate article for this case. As far as the supplies from other countries are concerned, if these supplies are within the law, then our opportunities to limit them are political. We don’t have any legal mechanism to affect. We continue and reiterate our principled stance that the supply of any weapons, lethal armaments to Azerbaijan is problematic, taking into account the unpredictable policy, as well as the shameful state of human rights in Azerbaijan, when it can use the weapons not only against foreign adversaries, but also against its own population,” Balayan said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

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Direct link to this article: https://www.armenianclub.com/2018/08/02/arms-supply-from-slovakia-to-azerbaijan-is-violation-of-international-law-says-armenian-foreign-ministry/