Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safarian
“There was an official assessment of what happened, that is, that ethnic cleansing was carried out as a result of Azerbaijan’s military operation against Nagorno-Karabakh, and work is being done in this direction with international partners. The issue is on the agenda and, naturally, it will be addressed in one way or another during the negotiations,” Mnatsakan Safarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry announced earlier on Thursday a preliminary arrangement about holding a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijan commissions dealing with issues of border delimitation and demarcation at an undisclosed location of the state frontier between the two countries on November 30. The Azerbaijani side confirmed this arrangement later during the day.
The announcement came after Azerbaijan offered to hold direct talks with Armenia in a “mutually acceptable” venue, including along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Armenia said it agreed to a meeting of border commissions, but stopped short of mentioning the possibility of direct Armenian-Azerbaijani talks at the highest level.
Asked whether Armenia was against talks without mediators, the deputy foreign minister said: “There are issues where the presence of mediators is mandatory and plays a very important role. For example, issues related to the rights of the population forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh. The existence of international mechanisms is important here. There are also other issues where guarantees are important.”
The International Court of Justice issued a preliminary order last week obliging Azerbaijan to ensure the safety of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians who fled their homes and crossed into Armenia following Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive on September 19, but now wish to return to the region that Baku has established full control of as a result of that one-day military operation.