The members of the EaP CSF Armenia National Platform Working Group 3, having discussed the results of the May 17-19, 2021 meeting of the EaP CSF WG3, as well as the information contained in the meeting report (hereinafter - the Report), unanimously decided to respond to it and state the following:
1. To consider the speech by the CSF Working Group 3 Coordinator Elchin Sultanov as politicized and inappropriate.
2. To demand from the EaP CSF Secretariat to remove from the Report the part of the transcript of Elchin Sultanov's speech, which refers to the monitoring of the state of the environment in Karabakh (hereinafter - Artsakh) and the development of relevant report by the CSF Azerbaijan National Platform Working Group 3 in collaboration with the Azerbaijani government, which has been adopted by the Azerbaijan National Platform Secretariat as a statement.
3. Since there were already hints about the monitoring of the environment carried out in the territory of "Karabakh" at the EaP CSF meeting, and the information was included in the Report, we demand that the Secretariat provide it to both the Armenian National Platform and the 3rd Working Groups of the other countries’ national platforms.
Elchin Sultanov's speech has a military-political context, for it refers to the Republic of Artsakh, where the traces of the Azerbaijani-Turkish-terrorist aggression are still fresh, moreover, that aggression now continues against the sovereign Republic of Armenia. The European Union has expressed a clear position on the hostilities in Artsakh. The European Parliament has adopted resolutions set out in the “Common Foreign and Security Policy” and the “Common Security and Defense Policy” Annual Reports, noting that “a lasting settlement still remains to be found and that the process of achieving peace and determining the region’s future legal status should be led by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and founded on the group’s Basic Principles.”
We believe that by including the mentioned information in the minutes, the Secretariat committed a gross violation. And this is in the case when during the 2020 EaP CSF Assembly it was not encouraged to talk about the Artsakh conflict at all, while this Report contains one-sided information. At the same time, the CSF has not considered properly the information provided by the Armenian civil society on the bombing of Artsakh and Armenian settlements, killing and capture of civilians, targeting civilian infrastructure, hospitals, maternity hospitals, historical and cultural monuments, sanctuaries, use of internationally banned cluster munitions, incendiary and chemical (phosphorus) munitions, torturing and not returning the Armenian prisoners of war. It should be noted that the listed war crimes have been condemned by the European Parliament and parliaments of a number of states.
Azerbaijan has not only violated the principle of peaceful settlement of international disputes enshrined in the UN Charter and the international war, humanitarian and environmental norms, and the Azerbaijani aggression was directed not only against the people of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia, but also against humanity and nature.
June 10, 2021 at 17:56