Armenia will never allow another genocide, says Ambassador to Mexico

Armenia

will never allow another genocide like the one its people suffered at the hands of the Ottomans in the 20th century and that is one of the causes of the conflict over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh with Azerbaijan , said the Ambassador to Mexico of the Caucasian Republic of Armenia , Ará Aivazian , who claimed no country is allowed to threaten or slander the people's representatives of another nation – refering to the Azeris who criticized the visit of three legislators from the left National Regeneration Party ( MORENA ) and the Democratic Revolution Party ( PRD ) to the enclave.

“The conflict is not a land dispute, it's about preventing another genocide; what the Turks couldn't do to the Armenians is what the Azeri wanted to do to the people of Nagorno Karabakh , and Armenia will never allow this tragedy to happen because Armenia is the guardian of prevention and punishment of genocide on the international stage . Generating hysteria from the visit of the deputies is aimed towards one single objective: to avoid similar trips, yet it will have the opposite effect of what they intend,” stressed Aivazian during an interview with EL UNIVERSAL, after accusing the Government of Baku (capital city of Azerbaijan) of exercising a “caviar diplomacy” and trying to revive the war last year with practices of the Islamic State by decapitating military and civil prisoners to broadcast afterward the photographies of their bodies.

Between 1915 and 1923, according to historians, the Ottoman Empire and its successor, present-day Turkey , exterminated over 1.5 million citizens from the Armenian minority, despite Ankara refusing to acknowledge the massacres. Around the same years, on top of the ruins of another power which couldn't withstand World War I, the Russian Empire, the communist authorities of Moscow, assigned in 1921 Nagorno Karabakh to the new Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic only to revert one day later the decision and hand over the enclave – populated in its majority by Armenians – to the neighbouring Republic of Azerbaijan .

Aivazian clarified the Federal Deputies Margarita Blanca Cuata Domínguez and Carlos Hernández Mirón, from the MORENA Party, as well as Margarita Cristina Bravo, from the PRD, paid with their own resources their trip in October – which legislators from other Mexican parties were initially to join – to see first-hand the situation in Nagorno Karabakh, which the Armenians call Artsaj, and where an independent republic was proclaimed without international recognition during the war between 1991 – 1994 which marked the end of the Soviet Union .

The members of Parliament, part of the Friendship Group Mexico-Armenia , were officially invited by the head of the group, Karen Avagyan, and traveled to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh between October 21 to 28. “We did not expect the pronunciation of any statement pro-Armenia or against Azerbaijan, and we wanted them to see first-hand what this is all about,” said Aivazian in this regard.

Armenia will never allow another genocide, says Ambassador to Mexico

AZERI PROTEST

Aivazian said the tour, condemned by the Azeri business representative to Mexico, Mammad Talibov – for not having the permission of Baku – “was a gesture of political courage,” after claiming they “are neither the first nor the last deputies in the world to travel to Nagorno Karabaj” and recalling that in the official website of Azerbaijan there is “a black list, which I call the list of honor, of the members of parliament, statespeople, and scholars who have traveled there, among whom stand out figures such as Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, and recently, a large delegation of U.S. legislators from California, despite threats.”

After Talibov's protest before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) , Aivazian emphasized the position of the agency and the Lower Chamber was “logical enough.”

“I had a meeting with the president of the Chamber (Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín), I won't say what we talked about but was very satisfied,” said Aivazian when highlight that he is “convinced Mexico's position will be broad and balanced,” keeping the support to the Minsk Group created in 1992 by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) , chaired by the U.S., France, and Russia, to promote a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Just this Wednesday, in Vienna, the Chancellors of Armenia and Azerbaijan met under the support of the Minsk Group, according to reports from the press in both countries. The meetings, which frequently take place, have not yet managed to provide a resolution to the conflict because, like Aivazian added, “we won't achieve tangible results acceptable for either Baku or the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh until Azerbaijan abandons its policy of militarization and intolerance. Should negotiations take place, they have to understand commitments have to be made.”

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