Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan Republic to OSCE issues press release about Armenian provocation
News.Az presents the text of the press release.
With reference to the allegations surfaced in the Armenian media claiming that at the initiative of the agents of the unlawful separatist regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan a so-called "statement" was disseminated as an "official document" in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the OSCE deems it necessary to clarify the following.
In line with the established practice within the OSCE, the Secretariat of the Organisation distributes at the request of any participating State any document received from that State without altering its content. This was the case this time, when following its usual provocative practice, the Delegation of the Republic of
Armenia to the OSCE distributed the above-mentioned sheet of paper.
The Delegation of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the OSCE on a number of occasions has raised this issue with the Secretariat and the Secretary-General of the Organisation, drawing their attention to the inadmissibility of allowing Armenia to abuse the OSCE Document Distribution Centre for promoting its annexationist aspirations with regard to the territories it has captured through military force and where it has carried out ethnic cleansing on a massive scale, in violation of the OSCE principles and commitments set forth in the Helsinki Final Act and the OSCE documents and decisions.
As a result of negotiations with the Secretary General. the OSCE Secretariat distributed among the participating States a Note Verbale, in which it restated the official policy of the Organisation that the Secretariat carries no responsibility for the content of the documents received for distribution from any participating State, and that such distribution is without prejudice to the OSCE decisions as set out in documents agreed by OSCE participating States. The sole responsibility for the content of a document rests with the participating State, requesting distribution of a document.
The OSCE as an inter-governmental organization carries out the consensus-based decisions and exercises collective will of all 57 participating States. Only consensus documents reflect the position of the Organisation. Consequently, dissemination of the above-mentioned "statement" is irrelevant and has no effect whatsoever on the declared OSCE position with regard to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, reflected in the relevant OSCE documents and decisions adopted by consensus since early 1990s, which underlined the respect for the inviolability of all borders, whether internal or external and unequivocally recognised that the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Furthermore, the participating States in the Budapest summit decision of 1994 confirmed their commitment to the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, which, inter alia, condemned the use of force against Azerbaijan and the occupation of its territories; reaffirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the inviolability of its internationally recognized borders; reaffirmed that the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan and called for immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
The Permanent Mission attaches herewith the Note Verbale of the OSCE Secretariat that will afford the public an opportunity to make its own assessment and to draw conclusions with regard to the official document distribution policy within OSCE and the status of the provocative papers disseminated by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the OSCE.
Nota Verbale
The OSCE Secretariat presents its compliments to the esteemed Pennanent Representations of the OSCE participating States to the OSCE and has the honour to bring to their kind attention the following:
In accordance with existing rules and established practice of the distribution of documents, the OSCE Conference Services distributes any document received from the OSCE participating States without altering its content. Thus the OSCE Conference Services carries no responsibility for the content of the documents received for distribution from any OSCE participating State. The distribution by the OSCE Conference Services of documents received from participating States is without prejudice to OSCE decisions, as set out in documents agreed by OSCE participating States.
The OSCE Secretariat avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the esteemed Pennanent Representations of the OSCE participating States to the OSCE the assurances of its highest consideration.
News.Az
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