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The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial dispute, but an issue of self-determination, Armenian MP Hayk Mamijanyan of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc told a meeting of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Social Affairs, Employment, Education, Culture and Civil Society in response to the Azerbaijani delegate’s remarks on Monday. His full statement is provided below.

“Madam chair, please believe me that social issues have no nationality or state of origin, so we all do respect all the victims of other conflicts, people who live in Nagorno-Karabakh have the right to be regarded by their rights.

First of all, I would like to state regarding Azerbaijani delegation, we are not the only ones who are stating that the Luchin corridor is blockaded. The European Parliament states the same, vast majority of PACE officials state the same and very other international organizations, so when you accuse us of telling not the truth as a collateral damage you accuse the European Parliament and other respectful European organizations for saying not truth.

There is nothing special and nothing surprising in this policy, holding hostages is the brand of Azeri diplomacy for a very long time. A few years ago, until now for more than 30, I am speaking about the official number of Armenian POWs there are still kept in Baku as hostages, and now we have 120,000 more hostages who are kept in Artsakh as hostages for Azerbaijan to have a possibility to make diplomacy. It is their brand of diplomacy. The other point I want to share are regarding the experts visit to Baku. I am really surprised because for many years, people who have surname ending “yan”, no matter what passport they are holding, the US, Russian one, or European one, were forbidden to visit Azerbaijan and there are many cases regarding that. I also wanted to clarify for my international colleagues that I do repeat, there are no Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, and it has been stated very many times. Speaking about the peace treaty and peace discussions, at the moment there are some discussions regarding negotiations between Armenian and Azerbaijan, first of all speaking about the territorial integrity have mentioned, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not and has never been a territorial dispute, it is an issue of self-determination, that's plain and simple.

I do believe that the so-called peace treaty or peace negotiations had to be conducted on the bases of OSCE Minsk Group framework, five statements made by the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group and importantly in this chambers by the principles that are stated in the CEPA agreement between Armenia and EU, which was ratified by all the member states of EU, so I do believe that the voice of your legislative organs, parliaments is really important for you, and no matter what are you discussing currently with Nikol Pashinyan. I want you to know that more than 90 percent of the population of the Republic of Armenia says that Artsakh will never be the part of Azerbaijan. So not only Arthur Khachatryan was speaking about it this morning, more than 90 percent of population of Armenia is stating that.

I don’t want to really burden you with more of information regarding what Azerbaijan delegation stated but what currently is happening in Nagorno-Karabakh is consequence, social consequence and assumed to become a humanitarian crisis. Regarding the ammunition and the staff like that, please take into consideration that gas pipeline, electric cable and cable for internet from time to time blocked and injured by the Azeri troops, so I don’t really believe that there can be something discussed about the pseudo or so-called eco-activists. I do repeat that vast majority of terms I have used was expressed in resolution by the European Parliament.”