Francisco Arroyo Vieyra: Chamber of Mexican Parliament supports the right to self-determination of peoples and any attempts to refer some positions to the Mexican Parliament do not correspond to reality

On October 24, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who is in Mexico on an official visit, met with Francisco Arroyo Vieyra, the Deputy Chairman of the Lower Chamber of the Mexico's Senate, Armenian Foreign Ministry reports.

Welcoming the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Vieyra mentioned that Mexico's Parliament would like to bring its contribution to the development and strengthening of the Armenian-Mexican relations.

Edward Nalbandian stressed that the resolutions adopted during the previous year's sitting of the Chamber of the Mexican Parliament which distort the facts about Nagorno-Karabakh not only harmed bilateral relations, but also flagrantly contradict to the position of the international community repeatedly stated by the heads of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries. In the words of the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, such activities are harming the steps undertaken by the international community towards the settlement of the issue and are threatening regional stability.

The high-ranking official of the Mexican Parliament said that he is aware of the negative consequences of the above-mentioned statements and provided explanations about that, underlining that the Chamber of the Mexican Parliament unequivocally supports the right to self-determination of peoples and any attempts to refer some positions to the Mexican Parliament do not correspond to reality.

Edward Nalbandian expressed satisfaction with the unequivocal support provided by the Mexican Parliament to the right to self-determination of peoples, as well as with the assurances presented by the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs that Mexico officially supports the proposals made by the Minsk Group on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and the efforts undertaken in that direction.

Minister Nalbandian expressed hope that the newly elected Mexican Parliament would undertake efficient steps to develop relations with Armenia. Edward Nalbandian informed as well about the creation of a friendship group with the Chamber of the Mexican Parliament in the Armenian Parliament, and conveyed greetings of the Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan to the heads of the Senate and Chamber of Parliament.

Francisco Arroyo Vieyra said that the Chamber of Parliament would undertake the steps towards the creation of a friendship group with the Armenian National Assembly which would definitely become an important format of interaction.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out on February 28 1988 in the Azerbaijani Sumgait with massacre of Armenians as a peculiar response of Azerbaijanis to the peaceful demand of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous Region, part of the Azerbaijani SSR, to unite with the Armenian SSR. This resulted in other pogroms of Armenians in Baku, Kirovabad and other regions of Azerbaijan populated with Armenians.  In 1991  Azerbaijan unleashed war against peaceful populations of Nagorno-Karabakh, expulsing ethnic Armenians from the territory of Azerbaijan. Dozens of thousands of peaceful residents on both parties were killed in the military actions, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless and have become refugees. In 1994 in Bishkek in mediation of the OSCE MG, the NKR, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Protocol on Ceasefire that is observed more or less so far. Since
1992 the OSCE Minsk Group represented by co- chairs from Russia, U.S.  and France has been mediating in resolution of the conflict unleashed by Azerbaijan in 1988. At present the peace process is based on the Madrid Principles suggested by the OSCE MG in 2007 in Madrid and renovated in 2009.