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At the OSCE PA Autumn Meeting the member of the RA NA delegation Sargis Khandanyan gave a speech, where it particularly said:

“Mr Chair,

Azerbaijan’s unjustified and unprovoked military aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia launched on September 13, 2022, resulted in grave humanitarian consequences for the peaceful population living close to the eastern border of Armenia։ the shelling of 36 towns and villages, the displacement of 7,600 civilians, including 1500 children, the targeting of hundreds of residential houses, hotels, schools, medical facilities, media personnel, and the killing of 211 Armenians, including civilians.

Days after this aggression horrific videos appeared in Azerbaijani social media showing the extrajudicial executions of unarmed Armenian soldiers. The dead bodies of Armenian female military personnel were mutilated and then video-recorded with cruelty by the Azerbaijani servicemen.

A couple of weeks ago, 2 years after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the president of Azerbaijan delivered a hate-fueled speech glorifying these crimes and justifying the occupation of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. In this speech Aliyev brags that the armed forces of Azerbaijan have been stationed at key strategic heights listing the names of the geographical locations of his possible new targets in Armenia. “Armenia should understand well what this means […] All these should be a lesson for Armenia,” he said.

These locations are towns and villages in Armenia where thousands of peaceful people live, and the president of Azerbaijan directly threatens these people. He has a message for the international community as well: “If we were afraid of someone, we would have never started the Second Karabakh War,” he said.

Dear colleagues,

One of the guiding principles of the OSCE adopted in its founding document is refraining from the threat or use of force. The Helsinki Final Act clearly declares that the participating States should refrain from any acts constituting a threat of force or direct or indirect use of force against another participating State. This Assembly must be very firm in protecting this principle and should be very vocal in condemning the violations of this principle,” Sargis Khandanyan concluded.