Armenia politicizes Francophonie event, shows disrespect to international law

OThe event is only remembered by disrespect to the international community and the attempt to undermine France’s efforts in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The intentions of Armenia to hold such a forum are clear. Being isolated hinders the opportunity to collect benefits and donations from foreign countries, which are of high importance for such a poor and economically unstable state as Armenia.

Yerevan, which has a two-faced nature, is trying to differently present and justify the continuation of the aggression policy against Azerbaijan. This is done with the aim to gain international support in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in its favor.

However, instead of making fun of itself in front of the whole world, Armenia would better return the occupied territories, thus establishing peace in the region. The country has no one to blame for its so-called “self-isolation”, but itself.

While Armenia tried to show the global community that it allegedly respects the humanistic values and is committed to them, the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh region was represented by the Armenian pavilion at the event says quite the opposite. It is just another provocative step serving continuation of the occupation policy, and everyone understands that.

Armenia politicized the Francophonie event even further. The Resolution on “Crisis situations, Getting out of crisis and Peace-building in the Francophone Area” adopted at the summit of the Organization of La Francophonie has a paragraph concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

It was clear from the very beginning that the summit in Yerevan will not be held without provocations, even the tiniest ones.

The countries of the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF) reiterated their position aimed at supporting the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to resolve the Karabakh conflict in the final document.

“We reaffirm our full support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and recall that for the long-term peace all parties to the conflict must be involved in the process, in accordance with the proposals of the cochairs,” the Armenian media quoted the document.

There is one phrase in this statement which changes a lot and shows a different perspective. What does “all parties to the conflict” mean ?

It is nothing by Pashinyan’s idea regarding the involvement of Karabakh separatists in the negotiations as a condition for “long-term peace”. This doesn’t correspond to the talks held recently between Armenian Prime Minister and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe, which arouse certain positivity among experts earlier. Many interpreted these talks as a sign that Yerevan agrees with the format of peace talks.

It is obvious that the text of the resolution, in any case, was written by the Armenian side.

The appeals sounded as if copied from the speeches of Nikol Pashinyan, including regarding “the implementation of agreements reached in the past”.

Pashinyan and his team are well aware that there will be no third party in the negotiations. There have been no any other “previous agreements” with the exception of the ceasefire regime, which the Armenians regularly violate. But such impossible demands and appeals help delay the process of peaceful negotiations for an indefinite period. However, delay of negotiations will bring nothing to Armenia except for growing mistrust from the international community.

This was stated by Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova at a press conference on October 17.

"During the visit, they intend to specify the position of the countries and discuss what concrete actions could be taken to intensify the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including the agreements recently reached in Dushanbe," she said.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a conversation on the sidelines of the CIS Summit in Dushanbe. The parties affirmed their commitment to the process of negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the strengthening of the ceasefire regime for preventing incidents on the line of contact and ArmeniaAzerbaijan border.

The sides decided to develop mechanisms for building prompt contacts between relevant authorities.

Zakharova stressed that everybody knows the position of Russia as a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group.

"This position has been outlined in joint statements made by the presidents of Russia, the US and France in 2009-2013, foreign ministers, as well as co-chairmen of three countries," she added.

Today, Russia is one of CoChairs of the OSCE Minsk Conference -- an institution that received "the main mandate to resolve this conflict". For this reason Russia has influence due to the fact that it is “not only an intermediary” in matters of regulation Karabakh conflict. Russia has significant potential to provide substantial impact on the course of events in the Caucasus, in particular, on the settlement of Karabakh conflict.

Negotiations recognized as the main means of resolving the Karabakh conflict. This agreement continues to this day, largely due to the Russian mediation mission and the political will of the conflicting sides.

Russia has always played a very active role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and along with the U.S. and France is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, which spearheads the OSCE’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are still underway within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.