The Armenian Foreign Minister has strongly condemned Azerbaijan's launching of criminal prosecution and issuing an international arrest warrant against the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan, Armenian ex-Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan.
The criminal prosecutions are "based on false and Armenophobic grounds", as well as "abuse of the procedures of international law enforcement," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, February 23
"Instead of undertaking efforts towards detecting the persons involved in the extrajudicial killings of civilians in Artsakh and in the forcible disappearances of Armenian prisoners of war, or revealing criminal networks of transfers of terrorist fighters to the region, Azerbaijan pursues its years long policy of Armenophobia with new momentum, attempting to provoke further escalations in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the Armenia-Azerbaijan bordering areas," the Foreign Ministry said in a .
"We urge Azerbaijan to undertake steps towards finding constructive solutions, protecting the rights and welfare of all the peoples of the region. At the same time, we reaffirm the commitment of the Republic of Armenia to undertake efforts for the establishment of peaceful coexistence and mutual tolerance in the region."
