YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. Deputy foreign minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan says 30 years ago in those days one of the darkest pages of the history of the region was written when Azerbaijan, in response to the peaceful demands of the Artsakh people to determine their own fate, tried to silence the Armenians of Artsakh by the wave of Armenian massacres across the country, reports Armenpress.

“The first manifestation of this policy were the massacres of the Armenian population of Sumgait hundreds of kilometers away from Stepanakert demonstrations. And the wave of this violence, which started in Sumgait, continued in other cities of Azerbaijan, Kirovabad, Baku. Today Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy has become an inseparable part of domestic and foreign policy of that country’s leadership based on which they build the self-consciousness and establishment of the Azerbaijani people”, the deputy FM said.

He stated that over 30 years the behavior of the Azerbaijani leadership has not changed. “We witnessed it in 2013 when Ramil Safarov, sentenced for killing an Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an ax, was released and declared a hero upon returning to Azerbaijan. During the April four-day war in 2016 the world again witnessed hatred manifestations in the Azerbaijani society against Armenians directed both against the civilians and the prisoners of war. Azerbaijan once again proved that the rules of the civilized world, the international humanitarian and human rights norms are empty voices for that country’s authorities”, deputy FM Kocharyan stated.

The Azerbaijani authorities, contrary to the numerous calls of the international community and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, instead of preparing their society to peace, still continue their militaristic and maximalist policy. “The Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not being settled due to the Azerbaijani authorities’ policy on responding by force and threat of force to the legal demand of the Artsakh people to live in peaceful, democratic and free country”, the Armenian deputy FM noted.

He said a consciousness matures among the international partners that as long as the Azerbaijani leadership continues its anti-Armenian policy, peace, stability and security are under danger in the South Caucasus region. “Committed to the ideas and goals of the Karabakh movement, we will force Azerbaijan to peace to rule out the possibility of new Sumgait massacres, to reach the international recognition of Artsakh and to guarantee the security and prosperity of Armenians in the region by our unity on pan-national issues and consistent and targeted work within the country and international platforms”, Shavarsh Kocharyan highlighted.  

English – translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan