YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. Armenia is ready to re-engage in negotiations on the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) settlement, Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian said on Thursday during a meeting with MPs.
The meeting with MPs was convened to discuss the results of the tripartite statement, signed by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on January 11 in Moscow and the main priorities and steps for returning Armenian prisoners of war held in Baku and promoting parliamentary diplomacy.
MPs from the opposition Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia parties did not attend the meeting.
“Armenia, as a party to the trilateral statement of January 11, 2021, clearly indicated its readiness to take steps to mutually beneficial use of the economic and infrastructural potential of the region. However, we need mutual trust to achieve success,”Aivazian said.
He noted that the situation in the region is a consequence of the use of force, but so far not a single conflict has been resolved by the use of force. He said that “the use of force can form a new stage in politics, but cannot resolve the conflict.”
According to him, only negotiations and a political settlement, which will respect the rights of all parties, can open the way for eliminating the causes and consequences of the conflict, lead to a long-term peace in the South Caucasus region.
“The settlement of the Karabakh conflict is based on the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination. Armenia will continue to support its people’s right to self-determination and act as a guarantor of their security,” Ayvazyan said.
The minister stressed that Armenia is ready to continue the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and under the auspices of the co-chairing countries on the basis of the basic principles and elements that were not indicated in the statement of November 9, 2020.
“Among the priorities of the Armenian parties are also the de-occupation of the territories of Artsakh that went under Baku’s control and the creation of appropriate conditions for the safe return of the Armenians displaced from these territories,” Ayvazyan said.
On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons.
After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the parties stopped at where they were at that time. The town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Karabakh and adjacent regions, prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons and bodies of the dead are being exchanged.