Arms trade to Azerbaijan is fatal as the country uses weapons sold to it to target Armenian civilian infrastructure, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. Below is the full transcript of the interview published on the Foreign Ministry's official website.
Question: How did this recent round of violence break out? What do you think Azerbaijan is trying to achieve?
Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: This recent July violence by Azerbaijan didn’t happen in a vacuum. On the eve of the escalation Azerbaijan at the level of highest political-military leadership has been consistently voicing threats of war, territorial and historic claims against Armenia, coupled with very vocal dissatisfaction of the work of the international mediators - the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
It was the second attempt of Azerbaijan to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict exclusively on their terms. The recent escalation demonstrated that show of force by Azerbaijan and its perceived military advantage dramatically failed and we have a clear case of miscalculation.
Question: Is Armenia prepared for a ceasefire?
Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Unlike Azerbaijan Armenia agreed to all proposals of the international mediators to strengthen the ceasefire by putting on the ground more monitors and introducing investigative mechanisms into ceasefire violations. Armenia continues to advocate those and other measures to reduce risks of escalation.
Question: We are seeing a lot of Israeli weapons (drones, missiles) being used by Azerbaijan. Have you conveyed concern about this to the Israeli government? Have you asked that Israel reconsider selling Baku these weapons?
Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Arms trade to Azerbaijan is fatal, because Azerbaijan never hesitates to use those weapons against civilian infrastructure, the civilian population.
We will consistently pursue this issue, it wi...
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