YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. The Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not over, as much as Azerbaijani lawmakers are trying to convince themselves and others the opposite, Armenian MP Arman Yeghoyan said during the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Yerevan in response to the Azerbaijani delegate’s speech claiming that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is over.

“I can’t recall how many times the Azerbaijani colleagues repeated trying to convince themselves that the conflict is over. The conflict can’t be over simply by saying its over. The conflict can be over when the reasons of the conflict are eliminated. The reasons which led to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict aren’t over. I’d say they even got more acute because in Azerbaijan the hatred towards Armenians, Armenian culture and everything relating to Armenians is getting deeper and deeper,” Yeghoyan said.

As proof, Yeghoyan cited the Azerbaijani government’s efforts to erase Armenian records from churches and falsely present them as Albanian monuments.

In response to the Azerbaijani delegate’s efforts to present Azerbaijan as a multi-cultural country, Yeghoyan asked the delegate to explain where the 500,000 Armenians who used to live in Azerbaijan are now today. “Where are these Armenians, where have they disappeared if Azerbaijan is a multi-cultural country? I don’t know whether you want to convince yourselves or others around you,” Yeghoyan said.

The Armenian lawmaker emphasized that peace at all cost is not possible. “Peace must be built through work, mutual respect, respect of the rights of others, respect of human rights, right to life, right to property. Is the right to life and right to property of Armenians guaranteed in Azerbaijan? No, because you can’t find a single Armenian who’s living under the rules of the Azerbaijani regime. All of them, in Baku and other cities, have disappeared,” Yeghoyan said.

He proposed to think about this fact and take into account while trying to suggest solutions.

Then, an Azerbaijani Member of Parliament and member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Euronest PA, Soltan Mammadov, claimed in his remarks that Azerbaijan doesn’t want war, and claimed that their visit is a good step for the relations between the countries.