RA NA reports that the 30th annual session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA) was held in Vancouver, Canada. 

Maria Karapetyan, a member of the delegation of the National Assembly to the OSCE PA, spoke at the OSCE PA Economic Affairs, Science, Technology, and Environment Committee session.

"Dear Colleagues,

I want to start my speech by appreciating the work of the committee's rapporteur, Ms. Kugler. I especially want to emphasize his point that when we talk about, for example, environmental problems, we should do so that they do not cause depression and do not push citizens into isolation from the problems because they are too complex. We must also generate enough optimism to seek solutions together. This is a critical ideological approach to problems.

I want to talk about the situation in the South Caucasus. Armenia and Azerbaijan are conducting peace negotiations. Armenia's goal in these peace negotiations is to sign a peace treaty whereby Armenia and Azerbaijan mutually recognize each other's territorial integrity based on their internationally recognized borders.

Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh, with the understanding that the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians should be discussed between Baku and Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian representatives, with an international presence for such dialogue.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has been blocking the Lachin Corridor for seven months. This means that Russian peacekeepers and the Azerbaijani army surround Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. And a week ago, Azerbaijan installed concrete barriers on the road to Lachin Corridor. There is footage of this on the web.

The flow of humanitarian aid to Nagorno Karabakh has also been stopped. No gas, no electricity, no replenishment of food and medical supplies. Patients in critical condition and need of medical services unavailable in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be transported either. And there is no international presence to document and address all of this.

This is a humanitarian crisis that also has many other dimensions, including environmental and economic. To present the situation, let me say that people in Nagorno-Karabakh have not bought or sold anything for seven months. They are just waiting in their homes for food packages to arrive. People's lives there have come to a standstill and are under constant threat of attack.

As desperate as this situation is, our position in Armenia is that we will not give in to provocations or give up on peace negotiations. We will continue to make conscientious efforts and demonstrate the political will to establish stability and peace in the South Caucasus. For this, we need stable international support to curb Azerbaijan's aggressiveness. After all the difficulties that the peoples of the South Caucasus have gone through in recent decades, there is a historic opportunity to establish peace between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan," said the deputy.