Dear chairman, dear colleagues!
I would hereby like to draw your attention to grave violation of International Humanitarian Law and the rules of war committed by Azerbaijan during 1-5 of April, 2016.
At the meantime, this is a call to all Governments, including the Government of the Russian Federation, that are in military cooperation with the Republic of Azerbaijan, to cancel all acting agreements with the latter and stop the supply and maintenance of weapons implied by these agreements. The reason for such call is the fact that these weapons are used by the Republic of Azerbaijan to commit war crimes and violate the principles of International Humanitarian Law and rules of war, enshrined in several international instruments.
Detailed justification of our statement is as follows:
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- The Republic of Azerbaijan has no right under International Law to use force against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. By doing so, the Republic of Azerbaijan violates one of the basic principles of International Law – prohibition of use or threat of force.
- The use of force by the Republic of Azerbaijan is a grave violation of the jus cogens principles of International Law, stipulated by the UN Charter (Article 2 (4)). Under Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” It is mandatory principle for Azerbaijan, regardless of whether Azerbaijan uses armed force against the recognized or unrecognized state.
- There are two cases, when the use force can be applied: under the Chapter VII of the UN Charter (the decision of the UN Security Council, which can take necessary measures to maintain international peace and security) and under Article 51 of the UN Charter (self-defense).
- None of these provisions can be applied by Azerbaijan in the present case, as there is no UN SC resolution to authorize the Republic of Azerbaijan to use force, and there is no basis for applying the right to self-defense. Azerbaijan cannot invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter when justifying its hostile actions, attacks at civilian population and use of non discriminatory weapons, taken from 1-5 of April, 2016.
- The military forces of the NKR have not attacked the military forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It was Azerbaijan that started the hostilities, which has been confirmed by the several statements of the high level officials of Azerbaijan.
- And even if Azerbaijan believes that it has right to use article 51 to justify its actions, in the present case it has no right to invoke Article 51, as states are under a duty to report measures taken in the exercise of the right of self-defense to the Security Council and the right to self-defense is temporary, until the Security Council “takes measures necessary to maintain international peace and security”. In the present case the Security Council has already taken all necessary measures to maintain international peace and security by its Resolutions from 1993, based on which the Minsk group of OSCE has been entitled to settle the dispute.
- Thus, the actions taken by Azerbaijan are in grave violation with the requirements of the UN Charter and the UN SC resolutions.Moreover by this conduct Azerbaijan violates the principle of prohibition of the threat or use of force, which is a jus cogens principle of the contemporary international law.
- In fact, it is quite the opposite; the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has a right to self-defense against the hostilities of Azerbaijan.The Republic of Armenia, as a full member of international community and the Organization of United Nations, bears ergaomnesobligation under International Law and the UN Charter to protect the right to self-determination of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and use all necessary measures to protect the people and the statehood of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
- Azerbaijan has committed grave violations under International Humanitarian Law
- Azerbaijan has committed one of the grave violationsof International Humanitarian Law, protected under the Geneva Conventions from 1949 (to which the Republic of Azerbaijan is a party), by attacking the civilian population, killing civilians, committing acts of inhuman treatment to them, torturing, attacking civilian objects, in particular, schools, and using weapons of indiscriminate character. Azerbaijani armed forces tortured captured soldiers and dissect corpses.
- All these violations have been considered as grave violations of Geneva Conventions from 1949 under International Humanitarian Law, and as such are considered to be crimes against humanity and war crimes.
I would also like to underline that the “argument” sometimes declared by some politicians “no difference if Azerbaijan did not buy weapons from Russians, they would have bought it from others” is at least a doubtful thesis. I refer to the multiple rocket launchers 9A52 “Smerch”, heavy flamethrower system TOS-1A “Solntsepyok”, combat anti-tank machine “Chrysanthema S” and others. Azerbaijan could not buy the above-mentioned military equipment from anybody else but Russia. The United States have a similar weapon but above all, it is more expensive and less powerful. And most importantly, neither Azerbaijan, nor Armenia can buy that weapon from the Americans, for the simple reason that the United States will not sell it either to Azerbaijan or Armenia. Therefore, the only source for these modern weapons is Russia.
In the light of these violations, we call the Russian Federation that have military agreements to provide armor (and especially, armor for the purpose of attacking) to the Republic of Azerbaijan, to refrain from continuing such cooperation, in order not to become indirect contributors to:
- the violations of jus cogensprinciples of International Law,
- use of force without any legal ground under the UN Charter,
- the violations of rulings of International Humanitarian Law either contractual or customary.
The Bright Armenia political party will be consistent in raising these issues and keeping the topic in the agenda of international community in all relevant instances.
EDMON MARUKYAN
Member of the National Assembly of Armenia
Chairman of the Board of the Bright Armenia party
