WASHINGTON–On June 21, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) responded to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ statement on the recent attack by Azerbaijani forces on Nagorno-Karabagh, considering its condemnation “generic,” and noting that it gives Baku a “free pass” to keep moving toward war.
“The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, in choosing to issue a generic condemnation of violence instead of a direct criticism of Azerbaijan’s most recent attack–as was clearly warranted by the facts of this case–gave Ilham Aliyev yet another free pass to keep moving toward the renewed war that he has long promised to start against Nagorno-Karabagh,” said ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. “The OSCE, for its part, needs to forcefully condemn Baku’s belligerence and pressure its leaders to stop using force, while the U.S. government must immediately cut off all military assistance to Azerbaijan.”
Below is the text of the OSCE statement.
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According to reports of the Ministries of Defense of Armenia and Azerbaijan, an armed incident took place during the night of June 18-19, 2010, in the northern part of the Line of Contact, resulting in casualties.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States of America, and Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, strongly condemn the use of force and regret the senseless loss of life. Such an incident is an unacceptable violation of the 1994 Ceasefire Agreement and is contrary to the stated commitment of the sides to refrain from the use of force or the threat of the use of force.
The incident took place immediately after the meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, held in St. Petersburg on June 17 at the invitation of the president of the Russian Federation to pursue the negotiation of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. The use of military force, particularly at this moment, can only be seen as an attempt to damage the peace process.
Therefore the co-chairs call upon the sides to exercise restraint on the terrain as well as in their public communications and prepare their population for peace and not for war. They reiterate that there is no alternative to a peaceful negotiation solution of the conflict and that war is not an option.
Finally they also call upon the sides to cooperate fully with the personal representative of the OSCE chairman in office and do nothing that would impede his monitoring activities.
This is absolutely absurd… are they serious about the punishment option? Is Azerbajian seriously just getting a slap on their hands? I am just furious.. simply angry…
I can’t believe this… why dont’ they just run our people with their army ? that is pretty much what the Minsk Group is saying to Azerbajian.. what a group of sissy women.. can’t believe this outrageous manner…
I hope our President stands up and just demand that if this does not hault, he will stop every single negotiations at once… and whatever goes with that…
Such Bastards… my heart bleeds for those Armenian soliders that just died because of this…
Gayane
Frankly speaking, I think we’re all in a pretty unsustainable situation in Karabakh — we have to realise that. We can’t simply pull out of the region, since that would be a capitulation to the Azeris and the opposition in Armenia would raise hell throughout the country.
At the same time, the Azeris will not change their belligerent rhetoric, nor will their desire to regain Karabakh cease, since, as much as Armenians like to admit or not, the land was under the sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and the Azeris see it legitimately as theirs; I’m sure that it’s not so different from the way the Serbs feel about losing Kosovo (although Serbs are a people far more civilized and prudent in the manner they express their grievances).