Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan harshly criticized Azerbaijan's position on Karabakh in his speech to the OSCE summit.
Sargsyan accused Azerbaijan of not being interested in a resolution of the Karabakh conflict,a similar charge to the one made by the Azerbaijani leader against Armenia.
He said that Armenia would "be left with no choice but to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh republic de jure and make every effort to ensure the security of the people of Artsakh", if Azerbaijan were to attempt to resume war.
The speeches by the two presidents, in which each country was critical of the other, leave little room for optimism on progress towards a settlement.
Serzh Sargsyan made it clear in his speech that Karabakh would never be part of Azerbaijan, while President Ilham Aliyev made it equally clear that Azerbaijan's territorial integrity would not be violated and Karabakh would remain part of Azerbaijan.
The OSCE Minsk Group mediators on the Karabakh conflict had hoped that the two leaders might meet on the sidelines of the Astana summit. Armenian media claimed that it was Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who refused to meet the presidents of Armenia and Russia at the summit. However, it would appear from the two leaders' speeches that neither side was inclined towards dialogue.
The full text of Serzh Sargsyan's speech, translated from Armenian news agency Armenpress, is given below.
"President Nazarbayev, Madam Chairwoman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
"This meeting of the heads of member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe can be considered special: it's the first OSCE summit of the 21st century and the first in the post-Soviet area. I congratulate our Kazakh colleagues, and Nursultan Nazarbayev personally, on the active chairmanship and well conducted summit.
"The peoples living in the OSCE area follow with hope and expectation the full application of the principles set out in the Helsinki Final Act. They include the people of Nagorno-Karabakh who can also expect the exercise of these principles and obligations which are universal, regardless of the size of a country, its population and natural resources.
"Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed its independence in September 1991 and afterwards, in December of that year, a referendum was held on the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh which fully met the norms of international law and the legislation of the Soviet Union. As a result, following the collapse of the USSR, two state formations with equal rights - the Azerbaijan Republic and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic - were formed on the territory of the former Azerbaijan SSR.
"In response to the policy of ethnic cleansing conducted by Azerbaijan and the armed aggression unleashed in 1992 against Karabakh, which had opted for self-determination, Nagorno-Karabakh, an unrecognized but legitimate state, was forced to resort to self defence in order to save itself from the threat of destruction of the people and this fully met the norms of international law.
"Having been unable to drive out the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh by military force, Azerbaijan was forced in May 1994 to sign a trilateral agreement on a ceasefire with Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. The ceasefire could have been the start of the establishment of a lasting peace in the region that would meet the interests of the peoples.
"But Azerbaijan has used the past 16 years, under cover of negotiations and despite the efforts of the Minsk Group, to prepare a new military venture. Baku thinks that the link of cause and effect of the Karabakh conflict has been forgotten. When Azerbaijan talks today about the need to return the territories under the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh self-defence army, it forgets that it is impossible to liquidate the consequences of the aggression it unleashed if the very cause of the conflict is not eliminated too.
"Ladies and Gentleman, Azerbaijan is the only country I know of in Europe, which talks with pride of doubling its military budget. Not only are the necessary steps not being taken against the emphasized violation of the permitted limits on conventional weapons in Europe , but this type of weapon is being sold, including to OSCE member states. All this is accompanied by open, anti-Armenian speeches by the Azerbaijani leadership, challenges sowing enmity, aggression, violence. Things have gone so far that Azerbaijani officials do not miss a chance to say that the Armenian capital Yerevan is in so-called 'historic Azerbaijani land'. Recently at UNESCO, they disputed the authorship of cross stones - a masterpiece of Armenian Christian art - and insisted that cross stones are an example of Azerbaijani art, of all things. You can, therefore, only wonder why five years ago one of the largest examples of this art - the Armenian medieval cemetery at Juga with its thousands of cross stones - was destroyed so viciously and in its place a military shooting range created.
"And this happened recently in Nakhchivan, which has the status of highest autonomy in Azerbaijan, and was the culmination of a long, deliberate policy of the complete destruction of Armenian cultural heritage.
"Dear Colleagues, Azerbaijan's attempts to extract, by threat of force, unilateral concessions are not only doomed to failure from the outset, but continue to remain the main obstacle to settling problems on the basis of compromise. In the past week alone, I have become convinced once again that at this stage Azerbaijan is not interested in a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Its only goal is to cause maximum damage to Armenia.
"Armenia categorically does not accept the option of a resumption of military activities in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the event of a resumption of military aggression by Azerbaijan, Armenia will be left with no choice but to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh republic de jure and make every effort to ensure the security of the people of Artsakh.
"Nagorno-Karabakh does not have a future as part of Azerbaijan and, whatever the resolution, it must be based on the will of the people of Karabakh. This is the essence of the right of peoples to self-determination. Azerbaijan has neither a legal nor political nor moral basis to for its claims on Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Respected Colleagues, the OSCE summit in itself has great significance for the future work of the organization. I want to stress the major contribution made by the country chairing the OSCE - Kazakhstan - to making this long-awaited meeting reality and holding it at a high level."
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