BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 7. Hearings against Azerbaijan were organized at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress on September 6, 2023, and Luis Ocampo (the former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court), who showed particular zeal in the race of Azerbaijanophobia raging in some Western countries, voiced a number of accusations against Azerbaijan, the Western Azerbaijan Community said, Trend reports.
According to the community, this once again proves the hypocrisy of the Tom Lantos Commission, its politicization with the abuse of human rights, as well as its participation in a hostile campaign against Azerbaijan, carried out by a number of circles.
The community called the Tom Lantos Commission to abandon blatant meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and to pay attention to issues within the US, such as protecting the rights of Native Americans and addressing excessive use of force by the police.
The community also called on Juan Mendez (former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), who, along with Ocampo, made baseless accusations against Azerbaijan, to raise the question of why, despite numerous appeals, he wasn't allowed into Guantanamo when he served as the UN Special Rapporteur.
"These hearings further embolden Armenia and revanchist forces, deliberately stoking tensions in the region. Armenia, which for 30 years refused to comply with UN Security Council resolutions and ultimately was defeated by Azerbaijan on the battlefield, now places its hopes on hearings organized by the Tom Lantos Commission, involving 5-10 persons, American rapper Snoop Dogg, and tweets from so-called 'independent' journalists with racist views, such as Lindsey Snell, who conducts a smear campaign against Azerbaijan and Türkiye," the community noted.
"The Tom Lantos Commission has never shown interest in the severe consequences of Armenian occupation, ethnic cleansing, the suffering of the Azerbaijani people, including the fate of Azerbaijanis deported from Armenia. If the commission was impartial and didn't treat issues through the lens of religious solidarity, it should have organized hearings on the return of Western Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands in Armenia," the community added.
The hearing participants accused Azerbaijan in the so-called "blockade" of Lachin-Khankendi road in Karabakh where Armenian residents live.
In order to prevent the transportation of manpower, ammunition, mines, as well as other military equipment from Armenia for illegal Armenian armed groups on the territory of Azerbaijan (which weren't withdrawn contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020 signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the second Karabakh war), and as an adequate response to the unilateral establishment of a border checkpoint by Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan on April 22 at the entrance to the Lachin-Khankendi road contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, on April 23 at 12:00 (GMT+4), the units of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan set up a border checkpoint in its sovereign territories, on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin-Khankendi road.