After a long 9-month blockade, taking advantage of the aggravated humanitarian situation in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), clearly ignoring the ruling of the International Court of Justice to open the Lachin Corridor, Azerbaijan moved to the final stage of ethnic cleansing.
On September 19, throughout the day, the armed forces of Azerbaijan bombarded and shelled the entire territory of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), including settlements and public buildings, residential buildings, using artillery, drones, and combat aviation.
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has publicly announced that it is carrying out “anti-terrorist operations” in Artsakh, including targeting tens of thousands of civilians, who during the last three months of the long lasting blockade, were even deprived of humanitarian aid.
According to Artsakh Ombudsman, Gegham Stepanyan, as of 3 аm of September 20, ” as a result of the full-scale terrorist attacks carried out by Azerbaijan there are 7 victims among civilian population – 3 of them women, 2 children and 2 men.” As of 9pm September 19, according to Stepanyan, there were 200 wounded, 29 of them civilians, including at least 8 children.
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More than 7,000 people have been evacuated from 16 civilian communities in Askeran, Martakert, Martuni, Shushi regions of Artsakh, which is essentially the deportation of the civilian population in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) under the guise of active military operations. The Yeghtsahogh community of Shushi region, with a total of 150 inhabitants, was the immediate target of the Azerbaijani military forces, which destroyed the school and kept the residents under siege. Two children were born in the basement in the conditions of ongoing shelling.
As a result of Azerbaijan’s military operations, unexploded shells were found on Mamikonyan and Sparapet streets of Stepanakert, in the areas adjacent to residential houses.
Referring to the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, the 1949 Geneva Convention and Additional Protocols, the 1974 UN General Assembly Special Declaration “On the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency Situations and Armed Conflicts”, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child,
We call upon the United Nations and the diplomatic representations of states accredited to the Republic of Armenia that remain committed to the spirit of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to take immediate measures to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the civilian population of Artsakh.
We are well aware that the basis of the violence unleashed by Azerbaijan is the show of power and force, which, as in all manifestations of violence, tries to silence the voice of the victims of violence with various ear-pleasing formulations.
We insist that people in internationally unrecognized states also have the right to life and dignity. The lives and health of children, women and the entire population living in Artsakh are under immediate and real threat. We are reminded of the ICJ’s assessment of an imminent risk of irreparable harm to Armenians. In such conditions, the protection of human life and dignity, as well as other rights, cannot become a subject of negotiation with the party that has perpetrated violence.
We demand immediate action to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in Artsakh, witnessed by the armed forces stationed there. The latter assumed a peacekeeping mission based on the tripartite statement of November 9.
We demand to give a clear assessment to the actions of the side that has resorted to violence and to take active steps to fully protect the rights and safety of the peaceful population of Artsakh, women and children.
We call for an arrangement of stable guarantees for peacekeeping under the mandate of the United Nations to stop the systematic violence against the people of Artsakh.
