On June 27-29, in Vienna, Armenian delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimian, participated in the OSCE 2017 Annual Security Review Conference.

At the opening of the conference, Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimian touched upon the factors shaping the current security environment in Europe, and in this context, singled out three main challenges, namely, disagreements among major players in the OSCE area over the issues of security regimes, instability in the OSCE neighborhood and the use of force in the context of conflicts. Deputy Minister Hovakimian underlined that the reduction of OSCE field capabilities added to the mentioned negative factors.

Ashot Hovakimian underlined that the use of force can not be justified, moreover, it undermines the settlement process of the conflicts within the agreed formats. The Deputy Minister emphasized that the use of force by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh is manifested by daily violations of the ceasefire agreement. Azerbaijan refuses to implement the agreements reached at Vienna and St. Petersburg Summits. The Deputy Minister emphasized that Azerbaijan was not interested in the OSCE presence in the region, and therefore pursued the discontinuation of the OSCE field missions in Baku and Yerevan.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia delivered a speech also at the Session on the issues of conflict and crisis situations, security and confidence in the OSCE area. In his speech, Ashot Hovakimian noted, that the use of force by Azerbaijan is a serious threat to the regional security.

Highlighting the unconditional implementation by Azerbaijan of the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg, Ashot Hovakimian stated that even the absence of the mechanism of investigation is not an obstacle for revealing the party, that initiates ceasefire violations. In this connection, he recalled the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs addressed to Azerbaijan on violating the ceasefire and shelling the military equipment along the Line of Contact.

Deputy Minister Hovakimian underlined that the support provided by Turkey to Azerbaijan at the highest level with regards the ceasefire violations as well as closed borders are an additional factor fueling the tension in the region. It was noted that Armenia has always used the OSCE platform for establishing a dialogue with the OSCE participating States, including Turkey, but the questions raised by the Armenian side largely remain unanswered.

Deputy Minister emphasized that the involvement of the OSCE in the region should be strengthened in order to build security and confidence in the conflicts and crisis situations.