Azerbaijan’s intolerance towards Armenia

It seems one of the main goals of the ruling Azerbaijani party is its anti-Armenian propaganda. “Yerevan is the capital of Western Azerbaijan” and “Azerbaijanis are the real natives of the current Armenia” are common expressions used by the “New Azerbaijan” party-controlled officials and media.

Pressure and violence toward journalists and public figures is regularly growing mentions international human rights organization – Amnesty International in its report. During the March protests 17 people were imprisoned, who are recognized as prisoners of conscience by the international human rights activists.

On November 19, in one of the military border units of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) a soldier, Aren Simonyan, aged 19 was killed. He was shot dead while in the post in the “line of contact” by an Azerbaijani forces sniper. This comes to prove that Azerbaijan is intentionally violating the ceasefire, which is disrespect toward the international efforts to solve Karabakh conflict in peaceful way.

I want to note that the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of OSCE plans to include the issue of negotiation concerning Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the agenda of the 18th session, which will be held on December 6-7 in Lithuania. The foreign ministers of 56 member countries of the OSCE together with representatives of other international organizations are expected to find solutions on such issues as new media, energy security, journalist’s safety, cyber threats and drug trafficking. Hopefully they can find realistic solutions for this conflict, because as longer it continues as many innocent people die.

It is worth to mention that Armenian youth are very active in civic society and problem solution issues and on November 18-19 OSCE Model Conference on Cyber security was held in Yerevan. Details here http://www.osce.org/yerevan/85156

Nvard Sununu, FD blogger from Armenia