Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian offered these comments following the May 16th Vienna meeting between Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and top diplomats from U.S., France and Russia regarding Nagorno Karabakh peace.
“Reports from the meeting between President Sargsyan and President Aliyev calling for mechanisms to monitor the Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire and increase the OSCE Minsk Group observer presence in the region represent promising early indications that the international community, after far too many years of appeasing Baku, may be willing to take meaningful steps to confront and constrain Azerbaijan’s escalating aggression against both Artsakh and Armenia.”
“The key, of course, is in the implementation of these understandings – and, to that end, a willingness by the OSCE Minsk Group and the international community to clearly and unequivocally condemn Azerbaijan’s obstruction of these confidence building measures. The OSCE’s counter-productive pattern of artificial even-handedness in the face of Azerbaijan’s ongoing ceasefire violations and escalation of violence has only served to embolden President Aliyev’s maarch toward war. We hope that this failed policy of false parity will finally be put to an end with this Vienna meeting.”
