Armenia, 2004

We wish to extend our

congratulations to you, Sir, on your election to the

presidency of the fifty-ninth session of the General

Assembly. We would also like to thank to Mr. Julian

Hunte and the Secretary-General for their efforts

during this difficult year.

Last year, we expressed our concern about the

restoration of sovereignty in Iraq and the

reinvigoration of the Middle East peace process. This

year, we wish especially to note the critical need to end

the tragedy in Darfur. Armenians, victims of the

twentieth century’s first genocide, know well the long-

lasting effects of victimization and homelessness. This

is no way to begin a new millennium. The benefits of

globalization should be utilized to overcome this

newest global crisis.

We also comprehend all too well that peace and

security abroad and at home are clearly associated with

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social and economic dignity today — or with faith in

their possible attainment tomorrow. Neither self-

satisfied smugness on the one hand nor self-righteous

violence on the other are solutions to the great

inequalities that exist around the world and within each

of our countries, even the most developed of them.

Terrorism, in all its manifestations, affects

security and political and economic stability in our

neighbourhoods and throughout our planet. Terrorism,

from Madrid to Beslan, in all its manifestations, is

inexcusable and unacceptable. Cognizant that the

success of counter-terrorism efforts is dependent upon

collective measures, Armenia has readily joined the

global fight against international terrorism. That fight

must go beyond effective regional and international

cooperation. It must include the very goals of the

Millennium Declaration: replacing deprivation, poverty

and injustice with universal respect for human rights

and democracy, economic development, equality and

social justice.

In Armenia we have had a year in which

economic growth went hand in hand with increased

participation in international organizations, particularly

in the United Nations. Our position in the Human

Development Index gives us the confidence to continue

on our path of economic development. We will also

work hard to bolster public-private partnerships. We

are proud that Armenia’s major enterprises are finding

ways to contribute to art and culture, to invest in public

life and to become partners in our society’s pursuit of

happiness and quality of life.

In 2005, the international community will review

the progress that has been made in the implementation

of the global development agenda. It would be most

useful if we could focus our resources on the

implementation of the agenda rather than on restating

our collective good intentions. In other words, we must

find the political will to make the political and

financial commitments necessary to overcome the

outstanding obstacles.

The Millennium Development Goals are

guidelines for Armenia. To that end, the empowerment

of women, the protection of children and the fight

against poverty are not just goals for us: they are

building blocks for a prosperous, healthy and stable

society. The Government of Armenia has approved

national action plans on the protection of the rights of

the child, on improving the status of women and

enhancing their role in our society and on preventing

trafficking in persons. In addition, a broad anti-

corruption strategy, developed with the participation

and counsel of the international community, will

complement the poverty reduction strategy programme

that is already beginning to yield results.

We are continuing our effective collaboration

with United Nations bodies on a number of important

issues, including use of information and

communication technologies to improve governance

and institutionalize public/private interactions. With

donor community support, focused institution-building

and good governance, we expect that the human rights

and democratic reforms of the past decade will go

beyond the solid legislative framework that has already

been developed and will take root — psychologically

and socially — in our society.

Armenia, as an active member of the Economic

and Social Council and the Commission on Human

Rights, will remain involved in international

development cooperation. At the same time, we will

participate in the effort to improve the consultation and

coordination mechanisms that are essential for the

effectiveness of the collective security system and we

look forward to the assessment of the High-level Panel

on Threats, Challenges and Change.

We stand for broader cooperation between the

United Nations and regional organizations to ensure

the broader involvement and commitment of countries

in decision-making and implementation processes.

Reform is necessary within those valued organizations

if we are to effectively address today’s realities and

challenges and resolve tomorrow’s problems. To do

that, we cannot work with yesterday’s mechanisms. A

revitalized General Assembly is indispensable for

effective United Nations action. We would also support

Japan, Germany and India joining countries from

Africa and Latin America as permanent members of an

enlarged and more representative Security Council.

In a few short years, Armenia has done away with

the false proposition that we must choose between East

and West, between the old world and the new. We have

done away with the myth that our neighbours can

control the pace of our economic development and

shape its direction. Now we want to do away with the

very dangerous notion that yesterday’s adversaries are

enemies forever.

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Armenia is ready to compromise and collaborate

with neighbours who are ready to join us in making

history, not rewriting it. We want to work with an

Azerbaijan that understands its place in a rule-based

international order, not one whose policies, practices

and statements threaten the fragile peace and stability

of our region.

Azerbaijan was the first to introduce ethnic

cleansing in the Soviet space, the first to engage

mercenaries and international terrorists in its own

defence and the first to discard the “rules of

engagement” in international organizations.

Let me explain. The Armenian presence in the

region of the Caucasus has been long and extensive.

Indeed, denying or rewriting that history requires

systematic planning, energy and resources.

Unfortunately, the Government of Azerbaijan has not

spared those resources. Azerbaijan succeeded in

eliminating the Armenians of Nakhichevan, who

comprised more than half the population there. There

were more than 400,000 Armenians living in

Azerbaijan during the Soviet period. The pogroms of

Sumgait and Baku led to the fact that there are none

today. Indeed, the Azerbaijani experiment in ethnic

cleansing worked.

A decade ago, Azerbaijan retained the services of

mercenaries and international terrorists — the same

names we hear today — to fight against the Armenian

men and women who were defending their own lands

and homes against aerial bombings and proximate

shelling. The terrorists lost, Armenians won.

Finally, Azerbaijan’s leadership dismisses the

opportunities offered by membership in international

organizations to build bridges and seek solutions.

Today, Azerbaijan rejects mediation by those who wish

to help halt drug trafficking through its territory. It

dismisses efforts by the Council of Europe and other

monitoring groups to come to the region and see with

their own eyes, at first hand, the destruction of

thousands of irreplaceable historic and cultural

markers. Azerbaijan squawks about its desire for

NATO membership, even as it repeatedly prohibits a

partner’s participation in NATO exercises. Worse,

Azerbaijan not only does not rebuke, it champions the

Azerbaijani military officer who decapitated a fellow

Armenian officer in a NATO training course in

Budapest. It maligns the Minsk Group of the

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to

hide its own refusal to consider the proposals that have

grown from the discussions and negotiations in which

its own leadership has participated. For more than half

a decade, Azerbaijan has rejected every proposal

before it from the “common State” proposal in 1998 to

the Key West document of 2001.

Armenians prevailed in the military confrontation

unleashed by Azerbaijan in response to the peaceful

demands of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh for self-

determination. Contrary to the assertion made by

Azerbaijan’s President from this podium, Armenians

have occupied those lands for over 2,000 years, and not

just the last 10. Today, Nagorno-Karabakh has reversed

the injustice done by Stalin back in the mid-1920s. It is

free, democratic and tolerant of minorities. Nagorno-

Karabakh holds regular elections, has State and

security structures, completely controls its own

territory and has a growing economy.

If in the past century Armenians and Azerbaijanis

were forcibly linked together, in the present century —

in which we have won the right to our own destinies —

we can determine to live together peaceably. If we are

serious about becoming full, deserving residents of the

European neighbourhood — where borders do not

count, but intentions and tolerance do — we will have

to come to terms with our past, with our history and

with the realities that have gripped our region.