President Serge Sargisian Delivers Address at UN

Just a few days ago in the bordering area of Armenia three women fell victim to Azerbaijani bombardment. The question that comes up to one’s mind is whether there is any reasonable person that can demonstrate any clear logic regarding that cruelty. It is obvious for us that the Azerbaijani leadership has irreversibly lost both the sense of reality and of norms of human conduct.

Azerbaijan completely disdains 5 joint Statement issued by the Presidents of the U.S., Russia and France, and the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. Shall it continue its such an aggressive policy, it will not leave Armenia any other choice but to take necessary legal and political-military steps to provide the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh Republic with the opportunity to develop in security and peace.

Although it is obvious to everybody as to which party instigates the cease-fire violations, I still would recall some facts.

It is strange — isn’t it? — that now it has already been for years that Azerbaijan stubbornly refused to withdraw snipers and establish incident investigation mechanism, which were proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The question that comes up to one’s mind is what Azerbaijan is afraid of?

It is strange — isn’t it? — that during the European Games hosted by Azerbaijan, when they needed image of stability, there had been almost no shooting fired at the border, while immediately subsequent those Games shootings extensively renewed. I do not expect you to buy assertions of any of the parties, but still anticipate you to exercise your innate intelligence.

It is strange — isn’t it? — that in the 21st century our neighbor day in, and day out, relentlessly and indefatigably takes pride in excessive accumulation of arms and manifold expansion of the military budget; it stubbornly continues making bellicose threats to renew the military hostilities, and does it at the highest level of the head of state.

I think now it is obvious to everyone why Armenia had consistently been urging the international community to make statements that were not generic, but were unambiguous as to whom it was addressed to while discussing the ceasefire violations. We shall understand that muffling of the early warning signals of threats to the peace and security may materialize in catastrophic repercussions.

Today we witness unspeakable cruelty taking place in the Middle East. The religious intolerance resulted in the irreversible aftermath. We have been most directly affected by the atrocities unfolding there, since they result in the destruction of the Armenian spiritual and cultural heritage artifacts, murder and expulsion of the numerous Armenians residing in Iraq and Syria. The Armenian community of Syria, whose history is centuries-long, shares and experiences all hardships that the Syrian people are undergoing in these difficult times. We are trying to aid the refuges to the best of our abilities: until this day, Armenia received more than 16 thousand refugees from Syria. By this sheer figure, Armenia is one of the first among recipient European countries.

Armenians know well the fate of the refuges, of the exiled and expelled. The Armenian Genocide should have claimed many more lives, and the survivors should have gone through much more hardship unless a number of nations, our friends had given us their shoulder in those difficult times. Today it is Germany, Sweden, and some other countries that deserve their due praise for humanism they displayed. They provided hundreds of thousands of refugees with safe haven, and thus reiterated that the assistance was necessary both from the legal and humanist perspectives.

This year we all witnessed how the joint and adequate actions paved the way to smoothing out a difficult international issue. An historical agreement was made on the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran, an immediate neighbor of ours. That critical deal is undoubtedly going to contribute to the global settlement of the conflict situations and consolidation of the mutual trust, and it was made possible by the extended and consistent political and diplomatic efforts.

All these come to prove that when there is a political will to bridge disagreements and emphasize the spirit of cooperation, it is indeed possible to find solutions for the most complicated issues. From this podium I would like to once again stress the importance of taking diplomatic efforts, especially with the aim to eliminate the closed borders. Armenia has been subjected to the illegal blockade by its neighbors, and we deem unacceptable such an improvident policy that in the 21st century establishes artificial obstacles disrupting intercultural, personal and trade contacts. In this context, we highly value the periodic review carried out under the framework of the UN Conferences on Landlocked Developing Countries. We stand ready to invest further efforts in this endeavor, also by hosting intermediate workshops on this topic in our country.