Nalbandian hopes Baku "won’t fall short of expectations”

Edward Nalbandian made this statement at the 126th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

“We share the opinion of CoE Secretary General Mr. Jagland regarding the “Democratic security” concept, which indicates that democratic countries are not inclined to start wars. It is evident that authoritarian regimes don’t have doubts over such choices.

We witnessed a situation of this kind in the beginning of this April, when Azerbaijan started large-scale military actions against Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted in large numbers of dead and wounded, and gross violations against the international humanitarian law and human rights,” said Edward Nalbandian.

The Foreign Minister stated that during the meeting in Vienna, an agreement was reached to introduce the monitoring of implementation of the Agreements on Ceasefire of 1994-1995 and incident investigation mechanisms, as well as enlarge the staff of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.

“This can pave a way for renewal of the negotiation process on the conflict settlement. Until now, Azerbaijan continuously thwarted such suggestions and even agreements made with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states. We hope that this time Azerbaijan won’t fall short of the expectations of the Co-Chair states and the international community,” said Edward Nalbandian.

The Minister stressed that the rights of individuals guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights cannot be conditioned by the status of the people’s place of residence.

“In this regard, we attach importance to the recent initiatives in expansion of discussions on upholding human rights in conflict zones,” said the Minister.