Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform urges state officials to put an end to war calls

Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform urges state officials to put an end to war calls
# 10 March 2017 12:50 (UTC +04:00)

Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace has urged state officials to put an end to war calls in their speeches.

APA presents the statement as follows:

“War rhetoric in the recent interview of the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sarkisiyan to Agence France-Presse can provide strong basis for the breach of stability and security in South Caucasus.

We, Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace, consider war statements of heads of state as unacceptable and know that such cases, regardless of the purpose, cause the increase in hostility and hate in peoples’ thoughts. In turn, it poses a serious threat to peace process. We think that speeches of the presidents on the solution of the conflict should protect the constructive aura of negotiations, which have to be made on serious and concrete issues.

At the same time, we have a serious concern regarding the statement of Elmar Mammadyarov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, on the causes of stopping negotiations during his meeting with Sergey Lavrov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, because the sound of weapons is heard louder when peace talks are suspended. It means a great threat and humanitarian crisis for the entire region. Possible war leads to great tragedy in line with human loss. Therefore, it nullifies the possibility of future co-existence, making the settlement of the conflict even more difficult.

Taking into consideration the above-mentioned reasons, we, as “Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace”, call upon presidents and state officials to end military rhetoric, as well as the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group, mediating in peaceful solution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to enlarge their efforts for restoring negotiations. We call OSCE Minsk Group to take preventive measures beforehand in accordance with their mandates in order to prevent from any military escalations in the contact line of the armies regarding Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict.”

For the purposes of contributing to a peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace was established on December 6, 2016. The Platform is an initiative of the citizens of Azerbaijan and Armenia who wish to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The initiative on the creation of the Platform has generated the interest of the international community as well as attracted the high level of public attention in both conflicting states. A large number of well-known experts highly appreciated this initiative and stressed the very special role of the above-mentioned peacekeeping initiative in the process of the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno Garabagh

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