BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 22. The accusations that the Azerbaijani Army intentionally attacked civilians are unfounded and false, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov said at the UN Security Council meeting, Trend reports.
"The counter-terrorism measures were exclusively aimed at neutralizing legitimate military targets on the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. Thus, these actions fully complied with Azerbaijan's right to sovereign self-defense, as established by the UN Charter," he said.
At the same time, Azerbaijan acted in full accordance with humanitarian law and took all measures to prevent harm to the civilian population and civilian infrastructure. Accusations that the Azerbaijani Army deliberately attacked civilians are unfounded and false, as evidenced by photo and video provided, the minister stressed.
"The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan made several public statements from the very beginning of the counter-terrorism operations, urging the civilian population to stay away from military facilities. Similar notifications were sent to Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan through an SMS service. This step was taken considering the possibility of the irresponsible placement of military equipment and facilities in residential areas by Armenian armed formations subordinate to Armenia," he said.
Bayramov noted that the Azerbaijani Army Units demonstrated a high level of professionalism by using precision munitions solely for the neutralization of illegal military objects.
"As evident from the photographs, if the goal had been to attack the civilian population or allegedly conduct "ethnic cleansing", the Azerbaijani Army would have acted differently," the Azerbaijani FM said.