Azerbaijan’s aggression can only be described as a direct threat to Armenia’s sovereign territory, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the special sitting of the Security Council.
At about 1 pm today units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the eastern border zone of Armenia. The Armenian Armed Forces undertook countermeasures, the Prime Minister said.
“Considerable damage has been inflicted on the rival’s manpower, at least six units of armored vehicles have been destroyed. There are victims on our side, and verified information will be provided later,” PM Pashinyan noted.
“In the silence of our partners in the international community, Azerbaijan continues its aggressive actions. My assessment is unequivocal. Azerbaijan, the forces encouraging it, are targeting our sovereignty, our statehood, our independence,” the Prime Minister added.
“Today we had a difficult day, and we are living difficult days. But today we also showed that we are here, we exist, we are a state, we are a nation and the language of compulsion is inadmissible for us. We can negotiate, we can seek and find mutually acceptable solutions, we act as a responsible member of the international community. But we will not allow to speak with us in the language of arrogance,” he stated.
PM Pashinyan called on the international community to make targeted statements condemning Azerbaijani aggression.
“Talks about border disputes are absurd and senseless. There is no border dispute, there is aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. The borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been clear since the period of the Soviet Union, by the legally binding agreements. And if the problem was the border dispute, Azerbaijan should have accepted our proposal of withdrawing forces simultaneously from the borderline between Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan, deploying international observers along the borderline and launching the process of demarcation and delimitation of borders long ago. Azerbaijan, that does not accept this proposal, is an aggressor state and must unequivocally withdraw its forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia. Its hopes to impose its will on Armenia are futile,” Nikol Pashinyan said.
He stressed that the Government and the people of the Republic of Armenia are determined, “and we will defend our sovereignty, territorial integrity, statehood and independence by all possible means.”
“At the same time, we continue to emphasize the need for a peaceful resolution of the situation, all our previous proposals are valid. We are committed to the provisions of the November 9 and January 11 trilateral statements,” the Prime Minister said.
Returning to the border situation, he said that at the moment the situation on the border is relatively calm, but remains extremely tense in general.
