Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian again blamed Azerbaijan for the lack of progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiating process and accused Turkey of obstructing the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations in a speech at the UN General Assembly on September 23, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.
“The absence of a desire by Azerbaijan to reach agreement and its everything-or-war posture are preventing progress in the negotiations,” he said.
Sarkisian reiterated in that regard that Armenian claims that the most recent Armenian-Azerbaijani summit held in Kazan, Russia, in June failed to yield a framework peace deal because of last-minute objections voiced by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
He said Aliyev thus walked away from “agreements reached at previous stages” of the peace process.
Azerbaijani officials have not explicitly denied such claims. But they insist that Yerevan is to blame for the lack of decisive progress in the peace talks.
Sarkisian went on to accuse Baku of promoting “Armenophobia” and warmongering.
“Bellicose statements and war threats voiced by Azerbaijan have intensified and violations of the cease-fire regime, which continue to claim the lives of innocent people, have become more frequent,” he said.
Sarkisian also hit out at Turkey, deploring its refusal to unconditionally ratify Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements signed in 2009.
“Turkey has thwarted the ratification and implementation of the 2009 protocols by all means,” he said.
Sarkisian further denounced Ankara for continuing to vehemently deny that the World War I-era mass killings and deportations of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide.
“The genocide perpetrated against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire has been recognized and condemned by many countries, parliaments, international structures, and genocide scholars,” he said. “Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Turkish republic, which continues to pursue the policy of denying this crime against humanity.”
“The absence of a desire by Azerbaijan to reach agreement and its everything-or-war posture are preventing progress in the negotiations,” he said.
Sarkisian reiterated in that regard that Armenian claims that the most recent Armenian-Azerbaijani summit held in Kazan, Russia, in June failed to yield a framework peace deal because of last-minute objections voiced by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
He said Aliyev thus walked away from “agreements reached at previous stages” of the peace process.
Azerbaijani officials have not explicitly denied such claims. But they insist that Yerevan is to blame for the lack of decisive progress in the peace talks.
Sarkisian went on to accuse Baku of promoting “Armenophobia” and warmongering.
“Bellicose statements and war threats voiced by Azerbaijan have intensified and violations of the cease-fire regime, which continue to claim the lives of innocent people, have become more frequent,” he said.
Sarkisian also hit out at Turkey, deploring its refusal to unconditionally ratify Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements signed in 2009.
“Turkey has thwarted the ratification and implementation of the 2009 protocols by all means,” he said.
Sarkisian further denounced Ankara for continuing to vehemently deny that the World War I-era mass killings and deportations of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide.
“The genocide perpetrated against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire has been recognized and condemned by many countries, parliaments, international structures, and genocide scholars,” he said. “Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Turkish republic, which continues to pursue the policy of denying this crime against humanity.”