Distinguished President of the National Assembly of Armenia,
Distinguished Vice-President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear colleagues,

We are glad to host the Rose-Roth seminar of NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Armenia. I would like to greet all the participants of the event and welcome our guests from abroad.

In the past few years the new challenges of international relations and threats of security environment that have come to add to existing issues make this seminar more urgent. I hope that Yerevan seminar will provide an opportunity to address urgent international and regional security issues and will bring effective contribution in the discussions directed to solving them.

In the current era of unprecedented interconnectedness and interactions the solving of challenges that humanity faces requires joint and unanimous efforts. Armenia is also trying to contribute to the process of strengthening the international security and in that context attaches an important role to relations with NATO.

Armenia-NATO cooperation from early 1990s has been conducted in the framework of implementation of the Partnership for Peace, Euro-Atlantic cooperation council, as well as other agreed bilateral programs. Since 2006 the basis of our cooperation is Individual Partnership Action Plan, the next phase of which is currently being implemented.

Political dialogue on security issues is one of the main topics of our agenda. It has periodically been held on different levels, including, the highest one. Such an occasion was in September 2014, when the President of Republic of Armenia Mr. Serzh Sargsyan participated and delivered a speech at the NATO Wales Summit in the format of the countries contributing to ISAF.

In December 2014, Foreign Minister of Armenia attended the “Resolute Support Mission” Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Brussels and reaffirmed Armenia's decision to participate in this mission. As you know Armenia has engaged with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan since 2010, a year later, in July 2011 it tripled its contingent. Since January of this year Armenian unit is continuing its service in the framework of “Resolute Support” mission. In the course of the past years, the Armenian peacekeepers have gained an invaluable experience in the framework of the ISAF.

Armenia also continues its participation in the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

Substantive cooperation with NATO is developing also in the spheres of defense sector reforms, emergency situations, public diplomacy etc.

We attach special emphasis to the Parliamentary format of Armenia-NATO cooperation, to the active involvement of our delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO, which is testified by the holding of this seminar.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Armenia is located in a region, where there are various challenges. The developments in our neighborhood do not always insure our immediate participation, but of course have their impact on the security of our compatriots in different countries. In particular, the crisis situation in Syria and Iraq, the activities of “Islamic State”, “al-Nusra” and other terrorist organisations in the Middle East.

Understandably, Armenia is sensitive to the changes of the security environment and advocates the settlement of all problems, through political negotiations, compromise and peaceful means. We are ready to do our best to prevent undesirable developments.

Armenia is in favor of the “principle of cooperative security” and realizes it in practice. Being an active member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, we at the same time are a trusted partner for NATO. We are also in favor of the development of maximally multidimensional cooperation between different defense, security structures as we are convinced that a higher and envisageable level of security can be provided only through dialogue, cooperation, armaments control, confidence-building, formation of unified and unbreakable area of security without dividing lines.

It refers to our region, South Caucasus, too, which needs the rooting of perception of the importance of common Security area. Under this perception one sided, uncompromising positions in the processes of conflict resolution, closed borders and other such kind of approaches would be meaningless and not worthy to our era.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, the attention of the international community is focused on finding ways of settlement of the Ukrainian Crisis. Armenia and Ukraine are connected not only with centuries-old friendship, but also through thousands of Armenians living in Ukraine. Armenia has welcomed the results of the Minsk Summit and adoption of the joint declaration of the Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and France, and German Chancellor, as well as the document on implementation of the Minsk Summit agreements, signed by the Contact Group. We are full of hope that the implementation of those agreements will pave the way for comprehensive settlement of the crisis.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Peaceful resolution of the conflicts has a primary importance. At the same time, it should be taken into account that any conflict has its own peculiarities, and it is impossible to apply one general formula for their resolution. The efforts towards the settlement of conflicts should be held in the frameworks of special negotiation formats and we should refrain from steps that could hinder these negotiation processes.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship is the format, which has the international mandate for the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and it is important to support not only formally but also practically the efforts of the Co-Chairs aimed at the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Armenia highly appreciates the support of NATO to the mediation mission of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at the exclusively peaceful, negotiable settlement of the Karabakh conflict. However, we find it unacceptable that there are some formulations in some NATO documents in contradiction with this approach, which is a result, as President Sargsyan mentioned during the Wales Summit, “of the lobbying of one of the member states wishing to save the face of our neighbour tyrant vis-a-vis his own people.” I would like to once again underline that this is a serious impediment on the way to conflict resolution.
Ladies and gentlemen,

Regarding the current stage of the NK conflict, we should mention that Baku continues to contradict the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and exerts its best efforts to fail the peaceful negotiations. It rejects the proposals of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs concerning not only the basic principles for the peaceful settlement but also the implementation of confidence-building measures. Those proposals are the results of the tireless efforts of the past six years: around twenty summits, dozens of meetings on ministerial level and a number of visits to the region by the Co-Chairs.

During the last year Baku has significantly escalated the situation by drastically increasing the ceasefire violations and and targeting civilian objects, with the use of heavy weaponry. This policy by Baku has claimed unprecedented high number of casualties among all parties to the conflict.

In conditions of the continuing escalation of the situation, which is the result of the destructive position of Azerbaijan, the Co-Chairs expressed their “serious concerns to Baku about the incursions across the line of contact and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border”. They directly urged Azerbaijan “to observe its commitments towards peaceful resolution of the conflict.” The Co-Chairs were forced to remind Baku of their mandate and to express their concern about criticism on the ongoing negotiation process, the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the duties of the OSCE observers. Most importantly the Co-Chairs clearly identified the unconstructive side, responsible for the violence. However, nothing restrains Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani provocations are also illustrated in its consistent bellicose rhetoric and anti-Armenian hate speech. In the last ten years, Azerbaijan has increased its military budget 30 times and constantly threatens to resolve the conflict by military means. The very representatives of civil society in Azerbaijan who advocate for peace and reconciliation are imprisoned by fabricated accusation. I think that the international community should loudly condemn such stance, which leads only to the deadlock and first of all the Azerbaijani society.

In contrast to Azerbaijan, Armenia has always been committed to continuing the efforts together with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs towards exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As you know, this year marks the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The recognition and condemnation of past genocides is one of the main factors for their prevention in the future. That is why states should never compromise this noble cause to any geopolitical calculations.

On this regard I would like once again to express our gratitude to all states and international organizations which recognized the Armenian Genocide in the past few months through their decisions, resolutions and statements, bringing their contribution to the prevention of new crimes against humanity and new acts of genocide.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Rose Roth Seminar and other similar international events should serve the objectives of constructive dialogue. This dialogue is a necessary precondition for preventing crises and even more to settle them. It is an important precondition for proper and productive resistance to the existing and emerging new challenges that we face today.

Once again I would like to welcome the participants of the Seminar and wish them fruitful discussions in coming three days.

Thank You!