Participation of members of the Russian-Armenian Inter-Parliamentary Commission in an overtly anti-Armenian event in Baku, Azerbaijan causes bewilderment, Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan said during his visit to Moscow on Wednesday, February 27.

“Armenians around the world commemorate the victims of the Sumgait Pogroms, which occurred more than thirty years ago and paved the way for more massacres of Armenians, initiating a policy of full-scale ethnic cleansing. This led to a mass exodus of the Armenian population from Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad and other cities,” Mirzoyan said at the Federation Council of Russia.

“I would like to stress that Armenia remains committed to an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, taking into account the realities in the region and on the basis of the fundamental principles of international law - in particular the right of peoples to self-determination - within the framework of the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is the only structure to have legitimate mandate of the international community. In this context, I would like to emphasize that we highly value the role of the Russian Federation as a co-chair of the Minsk Group.

“I have to state with regret that, despite the high level and allied interaction between our countries, as well as the consistent efforts of the Russian side aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict, some of our Russian colleagues just yesterday became participants in a pronounced anti-Armenian event held in Baku and aimed at undermining sustainable peace and stability in the region. Moreover, the participation of members of the Russian-Armenian Inter-Parliamentary Commission in this event causes fair bewilderment.”