Azerbaijani diaspora slams Armenia's bombing of Azerbaijani cities

Azerbaijani diaspora organizations operating in foreign countries issued a statement on October 17 in connection with the second anniversary of the bombing of Ganja, Barda, Terter, Naftalan and other cities of Azerbaijan, which began on September 27, 2020 and continued until November 10, 2020.

The statement was addressed to the heads of state and government of various countries, MPs, international organizations and their local offices, Caliber.Az reports.

The statement reads as follows:

“We, Azerbaijanis living in foreign countries, pay tribute to the memory of those who died as a result of the bombing of Azerbaijani cities on September 27 - November 10, 2020 by the Armenian armed forces, condemn crimes against humanity and peace, and declare with a sense of regret that the perpetrators of these bloody crimes are still not brought to justice.

We would like to note that the territorial claims and military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan that began in 1988 led to the First Karabakh War that took place in 1992-1994. As a result, about 1 million Azerbaijani civilians, including 250,000 expelled from Armenia, were forced to leave their homes, tens of thousands were killed, one of the bloodiest crimes of the 20th century, the Khojaly genocide, was committed, hundreds of Azerbaijani cities, towns and villages were razed to the ground, the occupied territories are mined.

Unfortunately, major states and international organizations did not exert serious pressure on Armenia in order to stop the occupation of Azerbaijani lands. despite the fact that the Republic of Azerbaijan, for almost 30 years, remaining committed to the peace process and the ceasefire agreement, sought a peaceful settlement of the conflict, Armenia nevertheless refused to comply with UN resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 on the immediate release occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

In response to the provocations of Armenia on the line of contact, the Second Karabakh War, which began on September 27, 2020 and lasted 44 days, put an end to the occupation of Azerbaijani lands. Having fulfilled the UN resolutions by military-political means, the Azerbaijani state liberated the occupied territories.

The Armenian armed forces, grossly violating the norms and principles of international law during the war, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocols to them, chose as a target the cities of Naftalan, Barda, Terter, Mingachevir and Yevlakh, including the second largest city of Azerbaijan, Ganja, located in tens of kilometers from the conflict zone and the front line, civilian infrastructure facilities - residential buildings, hospitals, medical centers, school buildings, kindergartens, administrative buildings of state structures, economic areas in Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Beylagan, Gabala, Absheron and Khizi regions, subjecting shelling them with various types of weapons, including heavy artillery, ballistic missiles, phosphorus and cluster bombs, committed war crimes against humanity. As a result, as a result of the Armenian military aggression on September 27 - November 10, 2020, 93 civilians were killed, including 12 children and 27 women, 454 people were injured, residential buildings, cultural, historical and religious monuments, vehicles and civilian infrastructure facilities were damage. Since, when organizing these attacks, the Armenian armed forces primarily pursued the goal of taking the lives of as many people as possible, the territories of cities and regions with a compact population of civilians were fired upon, in particular, at night. Despite all this, the military-political leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan, remaining committed to the norms of international law and the principles of humanism, did not fire on the civilian population and continued military operations only in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, although we have repeatedly appealed to the world community, international organizations with a call to identify and punish the perpetrators of crimes committed by Armenia against the civilian population during the Second Karabakh War, nevertheless, the actions of the military-political leadership of Armenia directed against peace and humanity, which, grossly violating the norms of international humanitarian law, participated in numerous war crimes, has not yet been given an international legal assessment. Despite the fact that two years have passed since the commission of these crimes, international organizations have done nothing to investigate the noted facts.

Once again bringing these facts to the attention of the UN, the European Union, the Council of Europe and their institutions, other authorized international and regional organizations, the Azerbaijanis of the world resolutely declare that in order to prevent the commission of another similar criminal act by Armenia, the international community must adequately respond to war crimes, the instigators of these crimes must be held accountable. We call for the adoption in the legal plane of urgent measures related to bringing to justice those responsible for committing crimes against peace and humanity on ethnic grounds at various times.”

It should be noted that the Azerbaijani diaspora organizations, both during the Second Karabakh War and in the post-war period, addressed statements to the heads of state and government, parliamentarians, international organizations and their local offices in connection with the war crimes and provocations of Armenia, including the non-issuance of mine maps by Armenia, provocations of September 12-14, 2022 and discovery of mass graves in Edilli. The Azerbaijani diaspora organizations' statements say that they are waiting for a large-scale international legal assessment of the actions of the military-political leadership of Armenia.