Remarks by Ambassador-designate Tigran Balayan at a Conference “The rights of the Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh Armenians and the EU”

07 նոյեմբերի, 2023

Dear Members of European Parliament,

Dear Prosecutor Ocampo,

Dear colleagues,

Սիրելի հայրենակիցներ,

Representatives of Azerbaijani community,

I would like to start with thanking the organizers, particularly “The Europeans for Artsakh” association, EAFJD (European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy) and honorable Costas Mavrides for taking the initiative of this event and going ahead with it, despite the recent ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Apart from my official capacity as Armenia’s Ambassador-designate in Brussels, I am also a member of the family that was ethnically cleansed from its ancestral homeland in Nagorno-Karabakh by brutal force in violation of all commitments of all the previous agreements reached so far and basic norms of international law, the ICJ orders and international legal order.

It is indeed inexplicable and shocking that despite hundreds of alarms, red flag alerts and warnings by respectable Human Rights organizations and international lawyers like Honorable Mr. Ocampo, the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh was indeed conducted by the Aliyev regime and its allies in front of the watchful eyes of the international community, which basically allowed that to happen, because since 2020 aggressive war, the business-as-usual with Baku continued, as nothing has happened, war crimes were not committed, the ICJ had not issued legally binding orders to Azerbaijan.

Every single step Azerbaijani Government has taken since 2020 are fully corresponding to the UN defined 14 factors of Atrocity crimes.

Azerbaijani dictator proudly brags that he has solved the Nagorno-Karabakh issue by the use of brutal force, intentionally violating the core principles of international law and international legal order. And he doesn’t care about any calls or statements from the outside, he even calls the resolutions adopted in this very house as useless sheets of papers.

Well, he might be overconfident like other dictators, and our task is to use all the possible legal means in our toolbox to hold the Aliyev regime accountable for the ethnic cleansing and grave war crimes.

Many are of the opinion that Aliyev is like Hitler or Ceausescu and he might end up like one of them. However, I am more for Justice to prevail, as I am convinced that peace can be achieved only via Justice.

It is high time to end the business-as-usual with the authoritarian regime like Aliyev’s and if the business-as-usual is to be continued with Azerbaijan, then they will undoubtedly continue further aggressions against Armenia.

The Aliyev regime should pay the price for everything- and the individual sanctions should be imposed. If the crimes remain unpunished they are doomed to be repeated again. I am convinced that the European Parliament is best placed to end the vicious circle of business as usual with the autocratic regime in Azerbaijan, by imposing individual sanctions against the key members of the regime, of course within its competences.

Tomorrow the Azerbaijani dictator is going to parade in the ethnically cleansed Stepanakert, we remember other fascist dictators parading in other occupied capitals and cities. Nevertheless, this parade must motivate us to work harder to ensure the right of indigenous Armenian population to return and live in peace and dignity under international guarantees and international presence in order to show that democratic values prevail and they are not just mere words.

That is why the Government of Armenia is determined to pursue the full restoration of the rights of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh via international legal means. Recent ratification of the Rome Statute, ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice should be regarded first and foremost in this context.

Despite all the security challenges and existential threats that Armenia is facing now, our determination towards peace is unbreakable. We are committed to the peace agenda and the recently presented project “Crossroads of Peace” is a true testimony of it.

And in this we need European commitment and determination to support peace and Armenia’s democratic path.

Recently the international community failed to ensure the responsibility to protect, which enabled the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, thus that same international community has responsibility to ensure that the Armenian people live in their homes in dignity and the sovereignty as well as the territorial integrity of Armenia are not threatened. Only this way true peace can be achieved!

Thank you.

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