BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 27
Trend:
Armenia continues to make attempts to deflect attention of the world community away from the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, as well as those aimed at promoting the so-called "regime" created by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Trend reports citing the statement of the community.
“Armenia, having recently sent a letter to the UN, along with attached piece of paper to it, related to the so-called "regime". The questions, outlined in it about the missing persons, are groundless and are primarily aimed at distorting various aspects of the conflict,” said the statement.
“As a result of the Armenian aggression, 3,889 Azerbaijanis, including 71 children, 267 women and 326 old people, went missing. This country is in no way interested in clarifying the fate of the missing Azerbaijanis. The reasons for this are perfectly clear. Irrefutable evidence suggests that most of these people have been killed or died from torture and diseases. Therefore, Armenia tries to hide its crimes against humanity, war crimes, and avoids cooperation within the humanitarian organizations,” the statement noted.
“We believe that the politicization of the issue of missing persons should not be allowed, but it should be viewed from a humanitarian point of view, to put an end to the suffering of hundreds of families in uncertainty," the statement said.
“The fate of the people taken hostage is of utmost concern. Armenia still holds hostage Azerbaijani civilians Dilgam Askarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who only visited the graves of their loved ones,” the statement noted.
“The fact that Armenia opposes the exchange of prisoners and hostages on the "all for all" principle is a clear manifestation of the inhuman essence of this country, of irresponsible behavior in relation to human fate,” added the statement.
Azerbaijan, as a country suffering from conflict for many years, treats the provisions of international humanitarian law with special care and supports efforts in this area.
“Every two years, Azerbaijan puts forward in the UN resolutions "Missing people" and "Release of women and children taken hostage during armed conflicts". The main purpose of these resolutions is all-round assistance in determining the fate of persons of this category,” the statement said.
“We declare that Armenia, which by any means seeks to distort the essence of the conflict, will not be able to hide the crimes it has committed, and will certainly answer for them,” the statement noted.
In July 2014, during an operation carried out by Armenian special forces in the village of Shaplar of the occupied Kalbajar district, Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov was killed, and Shahbaz Guliyev and Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov were taken hostage. They all wanted to visit their homes and the graves of their relatives. A criminal case was initiated against Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov.
Then, the so-called "court" sentenced Asgarov to life imprisonment, and Guliyev - to 22 years in prison.
Following continuous ceasefire violations of Armenia's armed forces, the country launched another military provocation against Azerbaijan on July 12. Grossly violating the ceasefire regime, Armenian armed forces opened fire in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district.
As a result of the appropriate measures, the Armenian armed forces were silenced. The tensions continued on the border, July 12 night. During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, army vehicles.
As a result of the shelling, many houses in the Tovuz district's border villages were damaged.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.