BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6
Trend:
Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan Sabina Aliyeva issued an appeal in connection with November 6 - the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, Trend reports citing the Office of the Ombudsman.
"As a result of Armenia’s military aggression, big damage was caused to the nature, biodiversity, flora and fauna, water resources, ecology and ecosystem in the Azerbaijani territories liberated from the Armenian occupation, international environmental crimes (ecocide) were committed,” the appeal says. “During the 30-year period of the occupation of the Azerbaijani lands, the ecological system was deliberately destroyed there."
“Armenia deliberately does not fulfill its obligations under the 1976 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (1989), the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents" (1992) and other international treaties,” the appeal says.
According to the appeal, Armenia also avoids ratifying the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes.
"The issue of assessing the impact of fires in the occupied Azerbaijani lands on the ecological safety of the region was mentioned in the resolution "The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan" adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006,” the appeal says.
According to the appeal, the resolution # 2085 "On the Intentional Deprivation of Water from Residents of Azerbaijan's Border Regions" adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2016 includes the demand to immediately withdraw the Armenian Armed Forces from the specified region and to conduct exploration on spot by independent engineers and hydrologists.
“These facts prove that as a result of the occupation policy and ecological terror of Armenia against Azerbaijan, the water resources, flora and fauna of Azerbaijan were greatly damaged,” the appeal says.
According to the appeal, for many years, forests were cut down in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, arsons were committed, the forest fund was destroyed, damage was caused to the ecosystem of Azerbaijan and the region, the restoration of which will take a long period.
“During the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, the natural resources of Azerbaijan were plundered, they were illegally used without observing any environmental standards by creating production facilities,” the appeal says. “Arsons and destruction were committed, the ecology was destructed by the Armenians during the period when they were leaving the districts and cities of Azerbaijan liberated from occupation.”
“The rivers flowing through the territories that had been under occupation for many years were polluted by Armenia with various waste and sewage,” the appeal says.
According to the appeal, the discharge of chemically contaminated wastewater from the copper-molybdenum plants of Gajaran and Gafan in Armenia, polluted wastewater from Gafan, Gajaran cities, as well as villages, hospitals, agricultural facilities without proper treatment (neutralization) directly into the Okhchuchay River turned the river into a "dead zone".
"In this regard, while addressing international structures, including international and regional organizations operating in the field of ecology and environmental protection on the occasion of November 6 - International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, I call for support in elimination of the consequences of the environmental terror committed by Armenia, take measures to bring people who committed these environmental crimes to international legal responsibility," the appeal says.