BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 18. The Azerbaijani Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) Sabina Aliyeva expressed her belief in bringing persons responsible for numerous crimes, committed by Armenia against Azerbaijani civilians, including the Bashlibel massacre, to justice, Trend reports citing the ombudsman’s statement on the 29th anniversary of the massacre.
"As a result of Armenia's policy of genocide, deportation, ethnic cleansing, and occupation against Azerbaijan, thousands of innocent Azerbaijanis were cruelly killed," the statement said. "One of the war crimes of Armenia against humanity was committed in Bashlibel village of the Kalbajar district in April 1993 during the district’s occupation. As a result of this crime, the village residents, including children, women, the disabled and old people, were brutally killed, and some were burned alive."
"During the occupation of Bashlibel village by Armenia, 62 civilians took refuge in a cave to save their lives. When Armenian armed forces discovered their whereabouts, they attacked and massacred them," the statement noted.
"Following the Kalbajar district’s liberation [as a result of 2020 second Karabakh war], the Azerbaijani search team found a place near the cave, where compatriots buried the bodies of people brutally killed by the Armenian armed forces," the ombudsman’s statement further said. "The remains of the killed people were exhumed, identified and re-buried. The testimonies of the survivors also confirm that during the Bashlibel massacre, the Armenian armed forces took the local residents hostage, and some residents of the village are still considered missing."
According to the statement, historical, cultural and religious sites in Bashlibel, one of the oldest and largest villages in the Kalbajar district, were destroyed during the occupation.
"As a result of the genocide committed by Armenia in Bashlibel village, as well as the act of vandalism against the historical and cultural heritage of Azerbaijan, the requirements of the current international human rights law were grossly violated," the statement concluded.