BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 16
Trend:
Chairman of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced People Rovshan Rzayev sent a letter to the embassies of the member-states of the OSCE Minsk Group in Azerbaijan, the State Committee told Trend on Oct. 16.
The purpose of the appeal is to draw the attention of the countries that have received a mandate related to the peaceful settlement of the conflict [Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] through negotiations, to Armenia’s aggression.
“The Armenian Armed Forces, which grossly violated the ceasefire regime, launched a large-scale attack on Azerbaijan on September 27, 2020,” the letter said. “The new act of aggression by Armenia against Azerbaijan is the continuation of an armed attack in the direction of Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district on July 12-16, 2020 and a provocation in the direction of Goranboy district on August 23.”
“The Armenian armed forces, violating the basic norms and principles of international law, including international humanitarian law, are deliberately firing at densely populated civilian facilities and settlements of Azerbaijan near the front line,” the letter said.
“As a result of intensive artillery shelling of Shikharkh village of Tartar district, Bakharli, Dordyol-1 and Tezekand settlements of Aghdam district, Alkhanli and Shukurbayli villages of Fuzuli district, Jojug Marjanli village of Jabrayil district, in which internally displaced people and refugees live, houses and facilities were destructed,” the letter said. “There were killed and wounded among the internally displaced people, including children and women.”
“These people are victims of Armenian aggression,” the letter said. “After many years of suffering in tent camps and railway cars, severe psychological trauma caused by the war, in particular, the 1992 genocide in Khojaly against the civilians, including women, children and the elderly, they are again forced to face trials caused by involuntary resettlement. These people were expelled from their houses during the 1992-1994 war and temporarily settled in the aforementioned settlements created by Azerbaijan.”
“Despite the attention and care of the state, the only way to solve the problems of internally displaced people, as enshrined in the reports of the UN special rapporteurs on the human rights of internally displaced people, within the official missions of the international community in Azerbaijan, to ensure their right to a dignified life is to allow to return to their native lands safely,” the letter said.
“As a result of artillery and missile strikes, about 160 residential buildings and other facilities of civilian infrastructure, in particular, important energy sources and social infrastructure, were destroyed,” the letter said.
“This military attack is the continuation of Armenia's strategy of using force and implementing illegal demographic, cultural and physical changes in the occupied territories, including the settlement of these territories by the Armenian population, as well as provocative statements by the leadership of the aggressor country (Karabakh is Armenia) and its other activity,” the letter said.
“The security strategy of the Armenian leadership reflects the idea of a "new war for new territories" and inventions called "unlimited self-determination" that are incompatible with international law, contradicting the UN Security Council’s resolutions and OSCE’s decisions in connection with the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the letter said. “Armenia, trying to involve the illegal puppet regime it has created in the occupied territories as a party to the negotiations, constantly violates the existing format of negotiations. This is a great blow to the peace process as a whole.”
“Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan is a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and additional protocols to them, UN Security Council’s resolutions #822, 853, 874, 884 of 1993, demanding the immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of Armenian troops from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan, basic norms and principles of international law, including the resolution of the UN General Assembly "The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan" of 2008, as well as international humanitarian law,” the letter said.
“Realizing the fact that the illegal presence of the Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region and adjacent districts, threatening peace and security in the region, remains the main reason for the resumption of the conflict, Azerbaijan is forced to protect its citizens and sovereign territory from Armenia’s military aggression,” the letter said.
“Within Azerbaijan's right to self-defense and in full compliance with international humanitarian law, a legal counter-offensive operation serves to restore its territorial integrity,” the letter said.
“All responsibility for the current situation rests with the Armenian leadership,” the letter said. “This country, hiding behind a humanitarian ceasefire agreement signed in Moscow, is committing new attacks on the Azerbaijani civilians. Armenia continues aggression and provocations with the aim of violating the humanitarian ceasefire regime.”
“The bloody October 11 attack on civilians in Azerbaijan’s Ganja city, Azerbaijan's second biggest city far from the war zone, is the shameful demonstration of Armenian terror and fascism, an act of genocide and a flagrant violation of the recently reached humanitarian ceasefire agreement,” the letter said.
“The international community, in particular, the member-states of the OSCE Minsk Group, must resolutely condemn and stop Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, force this occupying country to fulfill its obligations under international law, including the UN Security Council’s resolutions of 1993 and international humanitarian law," the letter said.