On February 23, an open debate, chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on "Maintenance of international peace and security: Reflect on history, reaffirm the strong commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations" was held at the UN Security Council.

Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dačić, Foreign Ministers of Russia, Venezuela, New Zealand, Malaysia, Lithuania, Nigeria and Ukraine, State Secretaries of Spain and Angola participated in the debate.

In his speech, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia, Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanyan attached importance to the principle of self-determination set out in the UN Charter that enabled UN's currently 193 countries to secure their membership at the Organization. Stressing the necessity of the implementation of the principle of self-determination, Ambassador Mnatsakanyan placed significance to the peoples’ right to freedom of expression, as a cornerstone of international relations and international law. At the same time Ambassador of Armenia mentioned, that regardless of the varieties of solutions, the present number of the UN membership is a vivid example of the triumph of the right to self-determination. This principle should prevail and be implemented, and does not necessarily need to challenge the territorial integrity of a state – the recent example is the Scottish Independence Referendum. However, if member states are persistent in prevention of crimes and acts of violence in the future, then implementation of the principle of self-determination can not be suppressed or ignored for the sake of territorial integrity.

In his remarks, Ambassador Mnatsakanyan touched upon the growth of tensions in the zone of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and in this regard the reaction of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, reiterating Armenia’s full commitment to respect the basic principles for conflict resolution set out in the Charter of the United Nations, the Helsinki Final Act, and identified and agreed upon by the Co-Chairs.The Ambassador recalled OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs' call, addressed to Azerbaijan, to observe its commitments to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

“Establishing confidence-building measures, including the withdrawal of snipers and the establishment of an investigative mechanism for the ceasefire violations, remains an immediate priority to address”, added the Ambassador and called upon Azerbaijan to unconditionally agree on them.

Touching upon the 70 years since the birth of the United Nations, Ambassador Mnatsakanyan mentioned that thirty years before the creation of the Organization, the Armenian people experienced extermination and deportation, what years later prompted Rafael Lemkin to coin the legal definition of genocide. Unfortunately, in the result of inadequate action also of international community the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide still have not accepted that, while genocide committed in Rwanda almost 20 years ago, would remind us of the price of inaction and silence of the international community Ambassador also stated, that on the eve of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, Armenia was willing to rebuild relations with Turkey without preconditions, however, Armenian side’s goodwill had not been adequately reciprocated by Turkey. “As for the denial policy, it only continues to do favour to perpetrators of subsequent genocides”, added Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, once again reflecting on the words of Hitler prior to the invasion of Poland in 1939: “Who, after all speaks of the annihilation of Armenians?” “Challenging denialism, I would mention that, to the chagrin of the denialists, millions fortunately, including in Turkey speak about it”, concluded the Ambassador.