Question: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan issued a statement regarding the visit of the Foreign Minister of Armenia to Artsakh stating that it is a violation of the commitments undertaken by the statement of November 9. What kind of commitments is it about?

Answer: These allegations are completely false and  baseless. The statement of November 9 does not impose any restrictions on relations between Armenia and Artsakh at different levels.

The trilateral statement of  November 9 aimed at establishing a ceasefire and deploying Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh does not contain any agreement on Artsakh's status. And from that perspective, all the claims about the changes regarding the status of Artsakh do not correspond to reality.

The status of Artsakh should be determined as a result of a peace process, based on the principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs; the right of peoples to self-determination.

Question: How does the Armenian side assess the implementation of the trilateral statement of November 9 by Azerbaijan?

Answer: As a result of the November 9 statement, large-scale hostilities have been ceased and the Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in Artsakh. At the same time, the Azerbaijani side has violated and continues to violate a number of key provisions of the trilateral statement.

Thus, according to the first provision of the trilateral statement, the parties must stand on their positions as of November 10 and cease the hostilities. Meanwhile, in more than a month after the ceasefire was established, the Azerbaijani side carried out military operations in direction of Old Tagher and Khtsaberd settlements, in the Hadrut region of Artsakh, resulting in casualties and capturing Armenian servicemen on the ground.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia referred to that gross violation of the statement in its statement made on December 13.

To date, the Azerbaijani side has not fully complied with the Article 8 of the trilateral statement, according to which, the prisoners of war, hostages and other captured civilians should be exchanged. As a result, Armenian prisoners of war and hostages are not being released.  Moreover, the Azerbaijani side is prosecuting Armenian prisoners of war at the highest level, presenting them as terrorists, attempting to prevent the full implementation of the November 9 trilateral statement.

The cessation of violations of the statement of November 9 by Azerbaijan is necessary for the full implementation of the trilateral statement.