BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.28
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Armenia's deliberate targeting of residential areas and the civilians is a gross violation of the international humanitarian law, Professor Naciye Selin Senocak, the head of the cultural diplomacy department at the Institute for European Studies in Brussels and head of the center for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies (CEDS) in Paris, told Trend.
She noted that the OSCE Minsk Group is the principal responsible of recent Armenian military aggression against Azerbaijani territories and civilians.
“The OSCE Minsk Group has failed in Karabakh negotiation and peacebuilding process. Since 30 years the inefficiency and irresponsibility of OSCE MINSK Group has motivated Armenia to intensify his military aggression against Azerbaijan's territory, the civilians and civilian infrastructure. Armenia's deliberate targeting of residential areas and the civilians is a gross violation of the international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Convention of 1949. Targeting the civilian population is a tactic incorporated in the combat training of Armenia's armed forces, and the Khojaly genocide perpetrated in February 1992.
“According to the international law, Armenian armed forces' strikes against the positions of Azerbaijan's army, against the civilians and civilian infrastructure, with the use of large-caliber weapons, are Armenia's yet another military aggression and an act of the use of force against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has issued repeated warnings to the international community that Armenia is preparing for a new act of aggression and war Unfortunately, the International Community especially OSCE Minsk Group continue its ostrich policy.
“Armenia committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the massacre in Khojaly in 1992, which is a genocide. The international community has shamefully kept silent about this genocide. By pursuing its military build-up in the occupied territories, illegally changing demography through illegal settlement policy, altering the centuries-old toponyms, destroying cultural heritage in the occupied lands, Armenia is not interested in seeking diplomatic settlement of the armed conflict.
“In order to restore the peace and stability in the Caucasus region, the international community must demand Armenia cease the illegal occupation of Azerbaijan's territories, withdraw its troops from all seized lands and engage constructively in the conflict settlement process in the spirit and language of the adopted resolutions and norms and principles of international law. This conflict has serious security implications throughout Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East,”
For establishing a serious and efficient sustainable peace building process a new diplomatic mechanism under the observation of UN Peace Building Commission must replace OSCE-Minsk Group which has failed in Nagorno-Karabakh peacebuilding process. Karabakh is Azerbaijan!” said Senocak.
On September 27, at about 06:00, the armed forces of Armenia, committing large-scale provocations, have subjected to intensive shelling from large-caliber weapons, mortars, and artillery mounts of various calibers of the positions of the Azerbaijan Army along the entire length of the front and Azerbaijani human settlements located in the frontline zone.
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.
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