Baku reacted to Nikol Pashinyan`s statement at the Paris Forum

ArmInfo.Baku reacted to the statement of Armenian Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Paris Forum.

''Hopefully Acting Prime Minister of Armenia realizes that his  statement at the Paris Peace Forum deeply contradicts the foreign  policy of the Republic of Armenia, which violated the fundamental  principles of international law, especially the principle of non- use  of force and  ''occupied the territories'' of Azerbaijan and deprived  hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis historically living in  Nagorno-Karabakh of their fundamental right - the right to live in  their homelands," 

"Does the exercise of right of self-determination mean conduct of  ethnic cleansing with regard to other ethnic groups living in the  same area? Does the supremacy of international law mean ''military  occupation of territories'' and imposing a fait-accompli solution?  Acting Head of the Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs  of Azerbaijan Leyla Abdullayeva asked.

 Abdullayeva also noted that the same fundamental principles that Mr.  Pashinyan mentions in his statement clearly answer the above  questions; it's enough simply to read the UN Charter and Helsinki  Final Act.  She also noted that "Addressing the international Forums  and speaking of peace and better future is good, but the most  important thing is not stating only, but acting in accordance with  what have been said. Better future for our region and Armenia itself  closely linked with ending the ''occupation of the Azerbaijani  territories ''by Armed Forces of Armenia and return of all IDP's to  their homelands''.

To note, Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is in Paris on a  working visit, attended the Paris Peace Conference. The Forum is  being held within the framework of events dedicated to the 100th  anniversary of the World War I Ceasefire, the press service of the  Prime Minister informs.  "Distinguished Heads of State and   Government, Ladies and Gentlemen, We have gathered here to   commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.  This    is an event of exceptional significance called to pay tribute to   collective memory and to articulate our common message of peace.   Today, we, as the leaders of the nations, which participated in that   war, should first of all speak about the lessons learnt from the   tragedy of World War One.  When a state wages a war or is tempted to   solve problems by military means, it believes in its own strength and   victory. Yet, World War One became a global tragedy for all the   peoples engaged and resulted in the destruction of its mastermind   states.  There is a belief, that from the geopolitical and military   perspective there are always winners and losers in wars. However,   from the human perspective, no one ever wins.  Wars bring only loss,   misery and devastation.  And regardless of our common efforts and  appeals to learn from the  previous mistakes, these lessons are  easily forgotten.  Even though one hundred years ago, the humanity  realized the need to  ban weapon of mass destruction, regrettably it  has not prevented the  creation of new generations of arms.  It was  during World War One  that the Entente powers for the first time ever  used the definition  "crimes against humanity and civilization", thus  condemning the  Ottoman rulers for the extermination of 1,5 million  Armenians. Later,  this horrendous crime was to be termed the first  genocide of the 20th  century.  Nonetheless, only few decades later  the humankind went  through Holocaust, genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda,  genocides of the  Christians and Yezidis in the Middle East, violence  against the  Rohingya people.  As part of the lessons, learnt from  the war the  right of the peoples to self-determination was set out  in Wilson's 14  points. Later on it was included in the UN Charter,  Helsinki Final  Act, and became a basis for the independence of  around half of the  modern states.  As a result of World War One, the   people of the world  legally established the right to master their  own destiny through the  expression of free will. Here, in France I  cannot but stress that  just days ago, France has clearly reiterated  its principled position  on this issue: the people of New Caledonia  were given the opportunity  to conduct a referendum.  Painfully, this  right is being exercised  selectively.  This is why, the decades-long  struggle of the people of  Nagorno-Karabakh to determine their  destiny has not received its proper legal solution. In the 21th  century it is absolutely  unacceptable that people's mere desire to  exercise its right to  self-determination may turn into an  existential menace.