Remarks by ambassador Tigran Balayan on Nagorno Karabakh at the special session of the the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives

04 February, 2021

Introductory remarks by Dr. Tigran Balayan, Ambassador of Armenia to the Netherlands at the special session of the the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives

Beste heer Voorzitter,

I am honored to be invited to the Tweede Kamer - a true Temple of Democracy, which once again proved its genuine devotion to the universal humanitarian values and protection of human rights during and after Azerbaijani-Turkish-jihadist aggression against Artsakh by adopting 13 motions.

While dictators like Ilham Aliyev label those important documents as “useless sheets of paper” and dare to insult democracies, for me and my people those motions are the milestone of the restoration of justice, in these terms we assess those steps as historical, thus we look forward to their practical implementation.

Coming back to the current situation I would like to emphasize three priority dimensions. More specifically, as for now the most urgent issue is a pure humanitarian one - repatriation of all PoWs and civilians. 85 days have passed since the cease-fire, yet hundreds of Armenians still remain under the Azerbaijani custody. Moreover, several PoWs have been killed as recently as in January. In response to the EU’s calls to free them, Azerbaijan threatens to reconsider its relations with the EU. At the first glance one could argue that we are facing a psychiatric case of megalomanie, yet I am of another opinion.

The reasons for this self-confidence and threatening language are rooted in decades of compromising with the Aliev regime on human rights violations, abduction, torture, sentencing and killings of opponents, critics and journalists, as well as ignoring Aliyev’s threats of lauching a war, constant balance during the aggression, which resulted in holding the EU-AZ cooperation council in an ordinary format last December, and giving in to the Azerbaijani blackmails on many issues on post war developments.

Heer Voorzitter

I myself, and I believe many of you, are confident that in 2016, in the aftermath of the April 4-day war, a strong and unified response by the EU and punitive measures could have prevented the 2020 aggression. As former German FM and current President Steinmeier said it is no secret which side started the war in 2016, I will add it is not a secret now. And lack of action in 2016 and the following years made a new aggression possible in 2020. We are in the Netherlands, and should say directly: the EU has its share of responsibility for not preventing the recent aggression and loss of thousands of lives in Artsakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Second urgent issue is the de-occupation of the territories inside Nagorno-Karabakh, towns and regions of Shushi, Hadrut, Shahumyan, parts of Martakert and Martuni and return of the indigenous population to the places of their residence.

Heer Voorziter,

Third issue, which Aliyev and Erdogan claim to have sent to the garbage of history is the definition of status of Nagorno-Karabakh, based on the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship. The reason why the conflict remains unresolved and the status is not defined should not be searched in incompetent or insufficient work of the Co-chairs, as this situation is the immediate result of Aliyev’s confidence in the military resolution of the conflict, which he now claims to have accomplished. Every time we were close to solving the conflict peacefully, Azerbaijan backtracked: last time it was in 2011.

As a direct consequence of the aforementioned tolerance towards the unacceptable policy of Azerbaijan our region confronts new serious challenges amid Azerbaijan's recent attempt to resolve the conflict by force. Armenia does not consider that the consequences of Azerbaijan’s aggression against Artsakh and the use of force can create a basis for lasting peace or be considered as an opportunity for regional cooperation.

As a career diplomat, and a true believer in the virtue of diplomacy, when I speak about a problem I also suggest a solution. The way forward is consistent mounting pressure until Ilham Aliyev realises that he is treated by the EU like Hussein, Kaddafi and many others, just before being toppled, and that maintaining relations and negotiating with him has nothing to do with the approval of his actions.

Equally, we don’t have any illusions that the Aliyev regime, which imported thousands of mercenaries from the Middle East and paid them extra $100 for each beheaded Armenian is able to investigate and punish perpetrators of thousands of war crimes committed by his own army. That is why we are in favor of an investigation of war crimes, proposed by the Dutch Foreign Minister Blok. Of course modalities should be discussed and agreed.

Heer Voorziter,

While the investigation will take time, there are practical steps, based on your decisions that could and should be taken to curb the ambitions of Aliyev and Erdogan:

- Cancelation of visa-free travel for the holders of Azerbaijani diplomatic passports to the Netherlands and the EU;

- Individual sanctions (travel ban, freeze of assets and property rights on the national level and in the EU) against president Aliyev, his family and their inner circles, let’s call it “Mehriban shopping ban”;

- suspension of Azerbaijan’s membership in the EU’s Eastern Partnership Program,

- suspension of the EU funded development projects in Azerbaijan;

- I would love to go further and suggest suspension of NATO-Azerbaijan cooperation, but we should be realistic, and Turkey is, unfortunately, still a member of NATO;

- Instruct the Government to seek an independent legal advice on the remedial recognition of Artsakh;

I remind that all those steps are fully in line with the motions, adopted by the Tweede Kamer.

I would like to conclude with a reminder, that the EU has enough experience and best practice in this regard, having dealt with more than enough relevant cases against human rights abusers around the world.

Heer Voorziter,

This meeting reminds me of the similar discussions in the French Assemblee Nationale at the end of last year, just before the almost unanimous resolution on the recognition of the Republic of Artsakh as the sole remedy to guarantee the security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. I do hope that the Tweede Kamer will follow that path.

Dank u voor uw aandacht.

MFA RA
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