STATEMENT
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA SERZH SARGSYAN
AT THE GENERAL DEBATE OF THE 72ND SESSION OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
New York, September 19, 2017
Distinguished President of the General Assembly,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I congratulate and wish success to Mr. Miroslav Lajcak upon his election as the President
of the 72na Session of the General Assembly.
I avail myself of this opportunity and congratulate anew Mr. Antdnio Guterres upon his
election to the office of the LJN Secretary General. Distinguished Mr. Secretary. General ....
we wish you success in carrying out your important mission. The priorities you declared
enjoy Armenia' s support.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In 2017 we marked the 25th anniversary of Armenia's accession to the United Nations.
On March 2, 1992 the Armenian tricolor flaunted at this headquarters of the United
Nations family as a logical and sought for outcome of the exercise by our people of its
fundamental right to self-determination.
Over the years, Armenia has become a fully-fledged and responsible member of the
international community. There had been numerous challenges in before of us, and we
withstood them with dignity. The most important and intricate one was the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict.
It is for the fifth time that I have an opportunity to speak from this eminent podium and
again I am compelled to address the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. I should have rather
preferred to talk of peace, progress and cooperation, but unfortunately we are not there
yet. Hence, it is my duty to explain why we are so much away from that desirable stage.
The new phase of the struggle for self-determination by the people of Artsakh began
ahnost 30 years ago. The peaceful calls by the Armenians of Artsakh to exercise their
inalienable right to self-determination as well as every step to that effect was met by use
force, to which Azerbaij an continuously resorted to.
The policy of the official Baku culminated in the massacres, ethnic cleansing and mass
deportation of the Armenian population of Azerbaijan. Once flourishing Armenianpopulated
districts in their entirety have been wiped out of the Armenians, and the
Government of Azerbaijan continues with its policy of systematic destruction of the vast
Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage on the territories under its control.
It is obvious that, under such circumstances, the people of Artsakh were left with no other
choice than to resort to self-defense. The grievous war of 1992-1994, its aftermath and
negotiations that followed did not serve as a lesson for Azerbaijan. Last year in April,
Azerbaijan unleashed a four-day war, which came to prove that Azerbaijan pursues the
objective of extermination of the people of Artsakh.
In the course of the military offensive unleashed in 2016, the Armed Forces of
Azerbaijan committed a number of war crimes against civilian population and the
prisoners of war. Here I am compelled to mention that a serviceman who committed such
atrocities has been decorated with a high state award, and the President of Azerbaijan
personally decorated him in front of the cameras.
Distinguished Mr. President,
It has been for years that hate speech and Armenophobia was made part and parcel of the
Azerbaijan's state policy. It has taken deep root in the school curricula, intoxicating the
younger generation. It has been for years that a number of inter-governmental and non-
.... goveÿrm-tentaÿspeciaÿized organizations dealingÿwiÿlÿracismmnd xenophobia have been
ringing alarm bells about it.
All of these leads us to believe that the exercise of the right to self-determination by the
people of Artsalch is of existential significance. In this regard, I convey the consolidated
view of Armenia and Artsalÿ as well as the one shared by Armenians from all over the
globe. I bring this message from Yerevan, where right now Armenia-Diaspora conference
is taking place.
Everyone should be aware that for the democratically developing Artsakh Azerbaijan
simply Symbolizes medieval baclcÿvardness. Azerbaijan has got no legal or moral ground
whatsoever to present any claims towards Artsakh. Artsalch has never been part to
independent Azerbaijan, and therefore the attempts of its annexation to that particular
state framework cannot be justified.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today free Artsakh is an established democratic society. Our shared motto and
commitment of "Leaving no one behind" should be the milestone guiding the work of the
United Nations family. It is exactly for that reason, I believe, that people of Artsakh
should never be isolated from the implementation of the sustainable development goals.
I strongly believe that the unresolved status of the Nagomo Karabakh conflict should
have no impact on the people of Artsakh as they exercise their rights. It is, first and
foremost, about inalienable rights for any human being. It is about the right to life, the
right to organize public life, the right to form freely one's own government, the right to
communicate unimpededly with the outer world, and many other rights.
Armenia consistently contributes and will contribute to the improvement of the living
conditions of the people of Artsakh, its sustainable and democratic development. No one
has a right to create hindrances to the implementation of initiatives and projects to that
effect. The legal status of Artsakh, or, to be more precise, the lack of the international
legal recognition, is not and cannot constitute an obstacle for the women and men who
live there to exercise their rights.
We strongly believe that there is no alternative to the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. Right now, from this eminent podium, I reiterate our commitment to
that effect.
Meanwhile, everyone should be aware that the Nagorno Karabakh issue is a human rights
issue. It can be resolved exclusively ttuough one of the fundamental and inalienable
human rights - the people's right to self-determination.
At the end of the day, whatever option for the conflict resolution we arrive at, the
Republic of Artsakh should not enjoy a status and liberty that might be inferior to the one
it enjoys today. Azerbaijan shall recognize and respect the right of the people of Artsalda
to decide its own future tlÿrough a free expression of will. All available international and
domestic mechanisms should guarantee the security of the Armenian population of
Artsalch.
All remaining issues are collateral. All remaining issues will find their logical and fair
solution in parallel to the general resolution process.
Distinguished Mr. President,
When I last time spoke from this eminent podium and addressed the process of
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, I considered it my duty to express
our gratitude one by one to all nations that recognized the horrendous crime that was
committed against my people in the Ottoman Empire.
It is my duty to express gratitude from this eminent podium of Honor and Responsibility
to all those countries that have recognized or reiterated their position on the Armenian
Genocide.
I thank them for it, regardless of the format and language adopted.
I thank the numerous countries and individuals, state bodies, regional entities and
organizations, who called things by their proper names. That is, indeed, important since
denial paves.the way for new crimes of genocide.
In this context, we recall that next year the family of the United Nations will mark the
70th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide. Armenia will bring up a new initiative upon that occasion, and we invite all to
join us and defend that initiative.
We, nevertheless, have never made the recognition of the Armenian Genocide a
precondition for the normalization of the bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey.
Moreover, it was upon the initiative of Armenia that a normalization process was
launched, resulting in the conclusion of the Zfirich protocols in October 2009.
Up to this day, those documents have not been ratified, instead, they have landed in some
dark drawers of the official Ankara. The Government of Turkey came up with.
preposterous preconditions for their ratification that run counter to the letter and spirit of
the Protocols. I expressed the clear-cut views of the Armenian people on this issue three
years ago, when I spoke from this eminent podium.
Now the time has come for additional explanations. The leadership of Turkey are
mistaken if they think that those documents can be held. hostage forever and ratified only
at the most opportune occasion from their very point of view. The Protocols were
negotiated in the existing circumstances in order to find solutions to the actually existing
issues.
Armenia will declare those two Protocols null and void since they continuously lacked
any positive progress towards their implementation. We will enter the spring of 2018
without those, as our experience has demonstrated, futile Protocols.
Armenia, nevertheless, continues to believe that any two neighboring states need to
..... ÿstablish-and enjos, normaÿ relations-inÿ)rder-to address-all possibleÿdisagreememts
between them and find solutions to such a discord.
This is the conviction we are guided by in our engagement with various integration
processes. Today, Armenia is an active member of the Eurasian Economic Union and
with its active work spares no effort in order to contribute to the unimpeded movement of
goods and services in that large economic area and, hence, contribute to and promote
welfare for all. We have already registered certain achievements in that regard, and that
makes us feel hopeful for future. We also plan to conclude this November
Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with European Union, which, in
our view, will help us to give a new impetus to the institutional reforms implemented in
Armenia.
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
The current instability in the Middle East regretfully remains asa serious challenge.
It is with great pain that we have been following the crisis in Syria and the humanitarian
situation there, which has brought about suffering of the civilian population, including the
Armenian comnaunity of the country. Within its means, Armenia strives to mitigate the
suffering of the Syrian people by providing humanitarian assistance. We also express our
willingness to engage into possible discussions on the peacemaldng efforts in Syria under
the UN auspices and with an appropriate mandate.
Distinguished Mr. President,
I have no doubt that our family of the United Nations is able to guarantee a new quality
of cooperation that will allow us to withstand the contemporary global and regional
challenges. It is with that objective in mind that Armenia participates in a number of the
UN peacekeeping operations. Moreover, we stand ready to increase our contribution in
Lebanon and Mali to UNIFIL and MINUSMA missions, respectively.
Armenia, as a landlocked country located in the complicated region, a country with
scarce natural resources, has continuously emphasized that human capital is its most
valuable resource. It is, indeed, correct both for Armenia and for our whole family of the
United Nations: we should focus on people, we should strive for peace and a decent life
for all, on a sustainable planet.
I thank you.
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