Azerbaijan is developing the situation to a new escalation - Pashinyan

At the beginning of the government session, the RA Prime Minister referred to the March 18 speech of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in which he stated that if Yerevan does not recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Baku will not recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia either.

"He openly and literally said that 'Armenia must accept Azerbaijan's conditions and agree to carry out delimitation on Azerbaijan's terms, otherwise there will be no peace agreement.' It is difficult to call this anything other than an act of aggression against RA and a gross violation of the agreements reached the highest level because the statement adopted as a result of the quadrilateral meeting on October 6, 2022 states: "Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed their commitment to the UN Charter and the 1991 Almaty Declaration, through which both sides recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty," Pashinyan said.

According to him, after these statements, which are a direct record of the fact that the borders of the Soviet republics have turned into state borders, Azerbaijan continuously talks about delimitation based on some historical maps, which is absolutely unacceptable.

Pashinyan emphasized that Azerbaijan's unpunished violations of internationally agreed agreements encourage them to resort to new provocations, recalling the incident that happened yesterday in Yeraskh (a soldier was killed by enemy fire) and expressing condolences to his parents and relatives.

Later today, Pashinyan wrote on his Twitter that a peace treaty will be signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“There will be a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and it will be based on the joint official statements adopted at the highest level. There won’t be а new escalation! The international community must strongly support this narrative,” he stated.

Azerbaijani MFA responded to Pashinyan's statements

"The aggressive rhetoric of the Armenian leadership, which threatens the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and ignores its international obligations, shows that Yerevan is not interested in peace in the region."

This is stated in the comment of Aykhan Hajizadeh, the head of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, in response to the speech of RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on March 23.

"We condemn and reject completely groundless accusations directed at Azerbaijan by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who persistently repeats the statement of the Armenian Foreign Ministry on March 18," he emphasized.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan also advises Pashinyan to learn from history and guide Armenia, which has occupied Azerbaijani territories for 30 years, carrying out ethnic cleansing against hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, and not to hinder the peace agenda that Azerbaijan is advancing from 2020, as well as to stop encroachment against the territorial integrity and interference in Azerbaijan's internal affairs.

The PACE Commission urged Azerbaijan to immediately comply with the decisions of the international courts regarding the unblocking of the Lachin Strait 

The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights today expressed great concern about the humanitarian crisis unfolding due to the ongoing obstruction of the Lachin Corridor. It adopted the following statement:

"The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe is
greatly concerned by the humanitarian crisis unfolding due to the ongoing obstruction of the Lachin Corridor.
This corridor is the lifeline between those living in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, and the Committee fully
supports the public statement made by the Parliamentary Assembly co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of
Armenia on 24 February 2023, calling for “immediate action” and “the immediate cessation of the unlawful
and illegitimate obstruction of the Lachin corridor”.

Decisive and urgent measures of the UN Security Council are necessary - Artsakh MFA referred to the targeting of its population

The Foreign Ministry of Artsakh issued a comment regarding the targeting of the civilian population of Artsakh by the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, considering it necessary to take decisive and urgent measures by the UN Security Council against the background of the genocidal policy conducted by Azerbaijan at the state level. This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh.

"On March 22, the armed forces of Azerbaijan, once again violating the ceasefire regime, opened fire at the civilians carrying out agricultural work in the administrative area of Chartar town of Martuni region of the Republic of Artsakh. This is the third case of targeting civilians by Azerbaijan within a week.

It should be reminded that on March 15, Azerbaijani combat positions opened fire with rifle weapons on the villagers working in the vineyards near the Amaras Valley of Martuni region, and on March 19, on a citizen doing agricultural work with a tractor in the administrative area of Taghavard village.

The ambassador of Azerbaijan was summoned to the Dutch MFA on the issue of non-implementation of the decision on Lachin

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands invited the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and informed him about the need to implement the decision of the International Court of Justice and open the Lachin Corridor, the Federation of Dutch Armenian Organizations (FAON) informs.

The 13 parliamentary factions of the Netherlands sent written questions to the country's foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra regarding the decision of the International Court of Justice on blocking the Lachin Corridor. Wopke Hoekstra in his reply letter agreed with the opinion of the parliamentarians that Azerbaijan does not comply with the court's decision.

It was also noted that Hoekstra has repeatedly raised his concerns regarding the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh due to the blocking of the Lachin Corridor, including in bilateral negotiations with the Azerbaijani authorities, as well as during the recent meeting between the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and the President of Azerbaijan.

The Russian peacekeeping contingent recorded one violation of the ceasefire regime in the Shushi region - Russian Ministry of Defense

The Russian peacekeeping force recorded one violation of the ceasefire regime in the Shushi region during the previous day, according to the official bulletin of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

There are no casualties. The fact is being investigated by the forces of the Russian peacekeeping force.