Azerbaijan Attempts to Rid Karabakh of Armenians While the World is Focused on Ukraine: Aghajanyan

The Chairman of the Permanent Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of Armenia and member of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Edward Aghajanyan, delivered a speech during the PACE spring session plenary meeting.

Aghajanyan noted in his speech that the Ukrainian crisis and its humanitarian consequences are currently of utmost importance for the Council of Europe, adding that, as expected, Azerbaijan has taken advantage of the international community's full concentration on the situation in Ukraine, undertaking overt actions that violate the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

“In particular, based on the Government's request, the European Court of Human Rights has applied provisional measures, calling on Azerbaijan to refrain from actions that would contribute to violations against the guarantees entitled to the civilian population under the Convention, as well as to respect their obligations enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Despite the above, even after the Court's provisional measures, Azerbaijan has continued to violate its obligations under the Convention. Since February 2022, Azerbaijani armed forces have consistently terrorized the population of border villages in Artsakh through various criminal acts of physical threats and psychological pressure, as well as direct, threatening, and intimidating statements directed at the civilian population via loudspeakers.

In periodic statements, the border population has been urged to cease farming and evacuate their homes, threatening their families with physical assaults otherwise,” said Aghajanyan.

He added that during the same period, on March 7, gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh was halted, leaving more than 150,000 people without heating in conditions of over 1.5 meters of snow and unprecedented cold. “Under pressure from the international community, Azerbaijan restored gas supply on March 19, but halted it again two days later. Esteemed colleagues, the above is a classical example of ethnic cleansing. While Azerbaijani officials often declare in international forums that the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is resolved and that Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh can live in peace in their homes, in reality, Azerbaijan is attempting to complete the final phase of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh by leveraging the international community's complete focus on the situation in Ukraine. Nevertheless, Armenia remains committed to the peace agenda in the South Caucasus and sees the final and peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group,” concluded Edward Aghajanyan.