UN troops must monitor and assess the human rights and security situation there.
Armenia called for a UN mission to protect the population following Azerbaijan’s military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh. The UN must immediately send troops to “monitor and assess the human rights and security situation on the ground”, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Saturday. His Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, emphasized Baku’s willingness to treat the Armenian population as equal citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of planning ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. The area belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but is predominantly inhabited by Armenians. Armenian Foreign Minister Mirzoyan drew a parallel with the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 in his speech at the UN General Debate in New York.
“On the verge of another failure”
As a result, the United Nations created preventative mechanisms to prevent a similar crime. Today, the world is “on the brink of another failure” in Nagorno-Karabakh, Mirzoyan said.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Bayramov said in his speech at the general debate that Muslim-majority Azerbaijan would respect the rights of Christian Armenians. His country is “determined to reintegrate Armenian residents of the Karabakh region into Azerbaijan as equal citizens.” Baku sees a “historic opportunity” for Azerbaijan and Armenia to create “good neighborly relations”.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Armenia of “adding fuel to the fire from time to time” regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Referring to a prominent Armenian politician who accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of handing over Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan, Lavrov said the accusation was “ridiculous”. With the Alma-Ata Declaration signed shortly before the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, Nagorno-Karabakh “simply” became part of Azerbaijan, Lavrov said. (APA)