Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan Meet in New York

NEW YORK — On September 25th Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian, who is in New York on a working visit, held second meeting with the Co-chairs of the Minsk Group.

Edward Nalbandian condemned and characterised as unacceptable the gross violations of the ceasefire by with the heavy artillery, which claimed human losses. He said that “to divert attention from the outrageous human rights situation in Azerbaijan and the growing criticism of the international community in towards this, Baku escalates the situation on the Line of Contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and the border with Armenia with considerable unforeseen negative consequences. With this provocations Baku demonstrates its disregard both to the human life and to its own commitments”.

Then upon the proposal of the Co-chairs and in their presence a meeting took place with the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov.

Referring to the Co-chairs September 25th statement, Minister Nalbandian said: “It is Azerbaijan that continuously rejects the proposals on confidence building measures and the initiatives aimed at the stabilisation of the situation and therefore, it is obvious to whom the messages of the statement are addressed. But it leads to an impression that Baku deliberately doesn’t pay attention to what the international community calls upon through the mediator states.

Minister Nalbandian attached importance to the reaffirmation by the Co-chairs of the proposal on the creation of an investigative mechanism on the ceasefire violations to which Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have expressed their agreement on numerous occasions. It would allow to determine with more certainty the side responsible for the ceasefire violations and incidents. “Azerbaijan refuses this, because it wants to have its hands free, and without scrutiny of international scrutiny to continue its provocations on the Line of Contact and borders”.

The Minister stated that “Baku refuses not only the initiatives of the Co-chairs on confidence building measures and rejects the proposals of the mediators on the conflict resolution, which have been made public in five statements of the Heads of the Minsk Group Co-chair countries, but also casts aside any reference to them, which once again was vividly demonstrated during the EU eastern Partnership summit in Riga”.

The Co-chairs expressed their deep concern about the rise of tension of the situation and stressed that the further escalation is unacceptable.

The plans on Co-chairs next visit to the region and the upcoming meetings were discussed.