Ambassador of Armenia to the EU, Srebrenica in the XXI century

BRUSSELS - "Ethnic cleansing is underway across the board, what is happening before our eyes is the Srebrenica of the twenty-first century and the international community that has all the tools to prevent it is doing nothing." Tigran Balayan, Armenian ambassador to the EU, told ANSA about the latest developments in the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. "The EU could have done more, introducing early warning and preventive sanctions against Azerbaijani officials and parliamentarians preparing for war, spreading hatred and preaching ethnic cleansing for years," Balayan stressed.

"At 22:30 on September 20, the death toll from the recent attacks was 200 dead, many of them civilians, thousands of people still unable to find their relatives and family members," the ambassador explained. "However, we believe that the EU still has all the tools at its disposal to prevent further deterioration of the situation.

Azerbaijan deceived the EU and the United States, given fake security guarantees while preparing attacks and ethnic cleansing, showed a profound lack of respect for the European Union, its institutions and leaders, but above all blatant disregard for international law. These actions of Aliyev cannot remain without consequences," the Yerevan diplomat stressed. Balayan said he was deeply concerned about what the fate of Armenians who choose to remain under the control of the Azerbaijani authorities would be deeply concerned. "We see the warmongering rhetoric, the reprehensible propaganda of defining the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh as terrorists, and of describing the population of Armenian origin as a tumor.

All this has only one goal: to deprive the people of Nagorno-Karabakh of the right to live freely and with dignity in their homeland, to deny the right of Armenians, including my family, to live in their ancestral lands." On the next steps to be taken, Balayan insisted on the need for the international community to make its voice heard. "Armenia expects strong condemnation of Azerbaijan's actions and stresses the importance of effective use of existing UN mechanisms in order to prevent mass atrocities," he stressed.