PRESS RELEASE: FEDERAL COUNCIL MUST CONDEMN AZERI ACTION

The Federal Council must condemn the breach of international law by Azerbaijan

PRESS RELEASE

Bern, 14. September 2022

On the night of September 12-13, 2022, Azerbaijani forces launched a massive attack on Armenia, supported by infantry, heavy artillery and drones. This offensive, which targets the eastern border towns of Vardenìs, Sòtk, Djermùg, Gorìs and Gapàn, poses a serious threat to Armenia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Swiss-Armenian Society (GSA) is demanding a clear statement from the Federal Council.

The attack, which had been in preparation for several weeks with Turkey’s help, came just days after peace talks were held in Brussels on August 31 between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, under the auspices of European Council President Charles Michel. Apparently, Azerbaijan wants to take advantage of Russia’s difficulties in Ukraine, whose troops ensure compliance with the November 9, 2020, ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Baku wants on one hand to force Yerevan to reject any possible political status for Nagorno-Karabakh – an autonomous region inhabited by Armenians – and on the other hand to grant a corridor without Armenian control between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, an Azeri enclave, which would achieve an almost complete land-border isolation of Armenia.

None of the previous bilateral and multilateral dialogue attempts made to find a peaceful solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh have been successful. On the contrary, these talks have only encouraged Azerbaijan to continue its military attacks not only against Nagorno-Karabakh but also against Armenia in order to impose its own peace conditions.

The Swiss-Armenian Association (GSA) is therefore calling on the Federal Council to take a clear position, as it did when the Russian army invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and to unequivocally condemn this military aggression against the sovereignty of Armenia.

Finally, the GSA calls on the Federal Council to ensure that the Swiss activities of SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company, which generates a large part of the state revenue and thus also finances the armaments expenditure, are stopped or at least controlled. It can no longer be that one of the main sources of financing for the war that Azerbaijan has been waging for several years against the existence of the Armenian people is generated in Switzerland.

CONTACT:

Stefan Müller-Altermatt
National Council, Co-President GSA
+41 76 332 15 26

Sarkis Shahinian
Co-President GSA
+41 79 407 60 51

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