On January 24, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan delivered remarks at the discussion held by the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, the Press Office of the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported.

Mirzoyan emphasized, "Of course, I could not but welcome the unambiguous statements, and every vote in the European Parliament cast in favor of resolving the mentioned humanitarian issues. Your strong voice was heard in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. I hope it was heard and heeded in Baku as well. I really hope that other European Institutions will be brave and fair enough as the European Parliament regarding the issues of the South Caucasus."

"The strong and clear messages from the European Union, including its legislative body, are truly important: firstly, the EU remains Armenia’s primary partner in promoting the institution-building and supporting our reform agenda based on our shared values, and secondly, despite all the challenges, we continue to expand the scope of our partnership based on the EU's commitment to contribute to the stability in our region," he added.

Minister Mirzoyan stated, "With regard to the EU's valuable contribution to the stability of our region, I would like to applaud Foreign Affairs Council for yesterday's decision to deploy a long-term Monitoring mission to Armenia. I would like to highlight that this mission is about human security - people living in the bordering regions, children going to schools, farmers carrying out their agricultural duties, and families that want to live in their houses without fear of being targeted. Concrete people, concrete schools, concrete houses."

"Months after the establishment of Commissions on the delimitation of borders, Azerbaijan not only raised new territorial claims but also tried to justify its last aggression with a fake argument that the border is not delimited. Ironically, these Commissions were established after the first Azerbaijani invasion into the sovereign territory of Armenia in May 2021, aiming also to prevent any further hostilities," the diplomat stressed.

He added: "We accepted Azerbaijan’s suggestion to discuss the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in parallel, separate tracks. In contrast, Azerbaijan started to claim that Nagorno-Karabakh is their internal issue, opposing Armenia’s concrete suggestion to create an international mechanism of talks between Baku and Stepanakert [Khankendi in Azerbaijani]."

"We cannot stand by and watch how people are slowly starving to death because of political games and perhaps geopolitical considerations. Let me put it straight: there are two theoretical options for lifting the blockade of the Lachin corridor: military or diplomatic. Armenia adheres to the second option, but that's possible only with a decisive intervention and strong pressure on Azerbaijan and tangible actions toward that end by the international community. The time to act is now. Azerbaijan should face the consequences for its actions. It should be explained to Azerbaijan that there are certain international rules by which everybody has to abide," Mirzoyan concluded.

Response from Azerbaijan

A day later, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stated that the views expressed by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan during his speech at the Foreign Relations Committee of the European Union Parliament are a clear example of hypocrisy.

"It is well known that Foreign Minister Mirzoyan's views about Armenia's participation in good faith in the negotiations on three tracks (opening of all communications, delimitation, signing of the peace treaty) initiated by Azerbaijan do not reflect the truth. After the proposals on the peace agenda were put forward, the Armenian side did not respond to our requests for months, did not take practical steps to advance the process, and continuously hindered the process with various pretexts," the report added.

The information stated, "Armenia, which did not respond to Azerbaijan's proposal to sign a peace agreement for more than eight months, then conditioned the signing of the peace agreement with a delimitation process that usually takes a long time, and proposed the creation of a demilitarized zone in an undefined border region, obstructed the peace agreement with various pretexts, certain elements "It is a matter of concern that it is creating confusion about the nature of the negotiation process and it is necessary for Armenia to re-evaluate its steps."

"It is unacceptable for a country that has built its national policy based on hatred against Azerbaijanis and Turks and has demonstrated this in all its actions, which generally destroys and deports all ethnic peoples living in its territory, to accuse Azerbaijan of hatred against Armenians," the report added.

"Regarding the ideas that have been voiced many times by Armenia and repeated during the last speech regarding the situation around the Lachin road, let us note that the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's natural resources, the transportation of these resources from Azerbaijan to Armenia, and the misuse of the Lachin road, which is the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, intended only for humanitarian purposes Peaceful protests are the legitimate right of the people of Azerbaijan. Illegal activities in the territories of Azerbaijan where Armenian residents live are a threat to Azerbaijan's national security, and it is necessary to stop such activities," it concluded.