RA Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan's speech at the emergency session of the UN Security Council

"Mr. President,

Dear colleagues,

The Security Council is thanked for convening this urgent meeting to discuss the security and humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan's unprovoked and pre-planned armed attack.

While the UN General Assembly is in session and all members of the international community are gathered here to seek ways to establish peace and security in the world, we all speak of the imperative to condemn the use of force to prevent further loss of life in artificial disasters, while each of us here is making its contribution to peace, on September 19, Azerbaijan unleashed another large-scale attack against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in our South Caucasus region, grossly violating international law and the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020. The entire territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, and other cities and settlements were subjected to intensive and widespread bombardment by rockets, heavy artillery, combat ATS, and aviation, including banned cluster munitions. It becomes clear from the intensity and brutality of the attack that the goal is to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh.

The consequences of this large-scale military operation make their dire nature evident. They are still very preliminary, as the targeted attack on vital infrastructure - power stations, telephone cables, stations, and internet equipment - has wholly cut off the population from each other and deprived them of the opportunity to present the situation on the ground. At the same time, Azerbaijani troops control the main roads of Nagorno-Karabakh, which makes it impossible to visit and get information on the spot.

The information about more than 200 victims and more than 400 wounded, including among the civilian population, women, and children, has been confirmed, which was also accepted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan today. More than 10,000 people were forcibly displaced, including women, children, and older people, who were left in the open without food or other means of livelihood. Thousands of families have been separated. If we add to all this the 20,000 people forcibly displaced due to the war in 2020, it will become evident that there are substantial humanitarian needs in Nagorno Karabakh.

People continue to starve due to acute food shortages caused by the 10-month-long blockade.

The healthcare system is paralyzed. Electricity supply to hospitals is completely disrupted, and there is an acute shortage of medicines. People are deprived of the opportunity to receive even first aid. The lack of fuel makes transporting the wounded to hospitals by ambulance impossible.

The views from Nagorno Karabakh are really shocking. Homeless and starving women, children, older adults, mothers in desperate search for their lost children, women terrified and crying because of the possible imprisonment of their husbands by Azerbaijan. It is hard to believe that all this is happening in front of the eyes of the international community and not 100 years ago, but right now, in the 21st century. Social networks are full of Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh looking for their relatives and children. Children forced into shelters or on the streets refuse to accept that they are no longer homeless and continually cry to their parents to return to their homes. An 8-year-old boy went missing while shelling one of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlements. His 10-year-old elder brother became a shelling victim, and his body could not even be removed from the village; the other younger brother was also injured. These are just a few examples of many cases. In the eyes of Azerbaijan, these children are terrorists, and it has directed its actions, missiles, armored vehicles, artillery, and drones against these children and their families.

In the Azerbaijani part of social networks, there are many calls to find missing children and women in order to rape, dismember them and feed them to dogs. Azerbaijani users are spreading the accounts of Armenian women from Nagorno-Karabakh on social networks, betting on who can rape them when they come under Azerbaijani control.

Co-workers,

This was predictable. There were clear signs. It's been a long time since we sounded the alarm. The international community refused to take it seriously enough.

This aggression was the culmination of the 10-month-long blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the forced starvation of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. The acute shortage of food, medicine, fuel, natural gas, electricity, and other essential goods makes Nagorno-Karabakh vulnerable. It has already brought the country to the brink of a humanitarian disaster. One would have to be naive to think that this was not planned from the start of the inhumane blockade if not even before, to break the will and ability of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to resist and lead their lives and livelihoods in their ancestral homeland. The Azerbaijani aggression carried out with blatant barbarism and deliberate targeting of civilians and infrastructure, was the final act of this tragedy aimed at the forced emigration of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

When Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, and we initiated an urgent session of the UN Security Council in December 2022, this Council needed to respond adequately.

When the International Court of Justice of the United Nations adopted legally binding decisions on February 22 and July 6, 2023, and Azerbaijan ignored them, this Council, being an authoritative body that was called to ensure the implementation of the decisions of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations, could not give an adequate response. :

When Azerbaijan set up an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor in April and subsequently began abducting people, including those under the protection of international humanitarian law, the international community failed to take adequate measures.

In August 2023, Armenia again convened another urgent session of the UN Security Council, warning about the fragile security and humanitarian situation and calling on the Council to use its tools to address all the problems and not to ignore the people of Nagorno Karabakh; this Council did not respond adequately.

In the days before the Azerbaijani aggression of September 19, when Armenia was warning about the expected use of force by Azerbaijan, expecting clear measures and actions to prevent this scenario, the international community reacted to our warning with skepticism.

Now that Azerbaijan has already resumed the use of force against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, when those people have been forcibly displaced from their homes and are in danger of being forcibly deported from their homeland when many who have defended their families and their right to live in freedom and dignity in their land for the past 30 years people are under threat of mass arrests and convictions when we have a situation where there is no longer intent, but there is clear and undeniable evidence of a policy of ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities, the UN Security Council must act.

Despite the acceptance of all the demands of the Azerbaijani side to stop the bloodshed and the ongoing negotiations today, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh were once again targeted by the use of weapons and mortars of various calibers, forcing the civilians to seek refuge in the basements once again. We believe such attacks and further persecution will continue until explicit international action.

By the way, regarding the mentioned demands, I would like to state very clearly and unequivocally that the Republic of Armenia did not participate in these discussions, and we resolutely reaffirm that the claims and references to any presence of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh are untrue.

With this experience, we clearly see the intention of some actors to involve the Republic of Armenia in military operations, thereby moving the combat operations to our sovereign territories. Armenia's position remains the same. We must establish peaceful relations based on mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity, which cannot be misinterpreted and used as an excuse for mass atrocities, including ethnic cleansing, in Nagorno-Karabakh. The rights and security of the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh must be adequately addressed and guaranteed internationally.

There is also another very important aspect that concerns the parties involved. As I mentioned, some of you still make general appeals to the parties to the conflict in your statements. This approach and this terminology are no longer relevant. There are no more parties to the competition than the perpetrators and the victims. The conflict is no longer there, but there is a real threat of crime. Is it still possible to prevent this now? We are here because we believe in it. Because we still believe in humanity, international law, and the ability of the Security Council to act decisively when thousands of lives are at stake.

Mr. President,

With all this, I appeal again and again to the Security Council to demonstrate its credibility and authority by taking the following urgent measures:

Condemn the resumption of hostilities and the targeting of civilian settlements and infrastructure;
demand the complete fulfillment of obligations under international humanitarian law, including duties related to the protection of vital civilian infrastructure for the civilian population, particularly women and children;
immediately deploy an inter-agency UN mission in Nagorno-Karabakh to monitor and assess the human rights, humanitarian and security situation;
to ensure unimpeded access of UN agencies and other international organizations to Nagorno Karabakh by humanitarian principles,
provide the parties' full cooperation in good faith with the International Committee of the Red Cross to eliminate the consequences of hostilities, including the recovery and identification of bodies, the search and rescue of persons missing in action, the release of prisoners of war, the safe and unhindered transportation of humanitarian aid, in strict accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law with conservation
to ensure the return of persons displaced during the recent aggression, as well as persons displaced as a result of the 2020 war and refugees to their homes in Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent regions, under the monitoring and control of the relevant UN institutions, as stipulated in the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020;
ensure the immediate restoration of vital supplies, including food, medicine, fuel, gas and electricity;
demand the immediate restoration of freedom and security of movement of people, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachine Corridor by the rulings of the International Security Court;
to provide a stable international dialogue mechanism between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and official Baku to address issues related to the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Demand the withdrawal of any Azerbaijani military and law enforcement representatives from all civilian settlements of Nagorno-Karabakh until the results of the negotiations to exclude panic, provocation, and escalation threatening the civilian population.
Exclude punitive actions against political and military representatives and personnel of Nagorno Karabakh,
create an opportunity for United Nations-mandated peacekeeping forces to maintain stability and security in Nagorno-Karabakh.
And at the end,

Mr. President,

Dear colleagues,

Let me emphasize that today we are celebrating the Independence Day of the Republic of Armenia and congratulate my compatriots on this significant and symbolic event.

Long live the Republic of Armenia!

Thank you."