BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 5
Trend:
Shelling of Azerbaijan’s Ganja city by Armenia once again proved that it ignores the norms and principles of international humanitarian law, Head of the Ombudsman's Office Aydin Safikhanli told Trend.
"Since September 27, the Armenian Armed Forces, grossly violating the norms of international law, have been carrying out intensive shelling of Azerbaijani settlements,” Safikhanli said. “As a result, civilian residents were killed and wounded, houses, historical and cultural monuments, administrative buildings and other social facilities were heavily damaged".
He noted that continuing their criminal acts, the Armenian Armed Forces on the morning of October 4 fired rockets at Ganja, the second-largest city in Azerbaijan, which is far from the conflict zone, and thus Armenia again grossly violated the norms and principles of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, especially the 1949 Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Safikhanli reminded that the convention envisions punishment of a state that allows aggression, commits war crimes, and does not respect human values .
“So, according to Article 51 of the UN Charter, aggression against a UN member must be immediately and decisively suppressed by the UN Security Council. However, unfortunately, international organizations have been unable or unwilling to do this for 30 years,” he noted.
“In such case, Azerbaijan, in accordance with the UN Charter, using its right to protection from aggression, must ensure the safety of the civilian population within its internationally recognized borders, take the necessary steps to suppress the provocations of Armenia, punish the aggressor for his crimes, and has already begun to act in this direction. This is the natural right of Azerbaijan, based on international law,” Safikhanli summed up.