Azerbaijan has Persistently Acted to Seize Shushi: Artsakh Ombudsman

The Ombudsman of Artsakh, Gegham Stepanyan, in a Facebook post on the second anniversary of Azerbaijan's seizure of Shushi, stated that "as a result of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh in the autumn of 2020, around 200 settlements of the Republic of Artsakh were seized by Azerbaijan, including the Armenian cultural center of Shushi.

According to the illegal decision made on July 5, 1921 regarding the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan, Shushi was defined as the center of the Armenian autonomy to be formed. However, with the long-term aim of alienating Shushi from Artsakh, in 1923, when a small part of Artsakh was established as the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, the center became Stepanakert instead of Shushi.

Azerbaijan has consistently worked to seize Shushi, distort its Armenian identity, and present it as Azerbaijani. During the city's appropriation, as was the case in the early 1900s, the main instruments of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem in 2020 were ethnic cleansing and genocide—physical annihilation of the Armenian population, deportation, and the destruction and distortion of the spiritual and cultural values they created.

The cultural heritage of Shushi is a unique testimony to the city's Armenian belonging. This is why twice during the war, the Ghazanchetsots Holy Savior Church was deliberately targeted, and after the ceasefire, the Saint John the Baptist (Green Hour) Church and many Armenian cultural values in Shushi have been continuously desecrated.

Azerbaijan has been relentlessly destroying the city's civil infrastructure, houses, and apartment buildings. Today's occupied and depopulated Shushi is a real example of the centuries-old and unchanging Turkish-Azerbaijani policy of ethnic cleansing against Artsakh. By taking international delegations to Shushi on various occasions, Azerbaijan attempts to legitimize its aggression. All those who visit Shushi become accomplices in the displacement of people and legitimize the use of force, aggression, and occupation.

Today’s occupation does not change the status of Shushi; it has been and will continue to be an inseparable part of the Republic of Artsakh,” the statement from the Ombudsman of Artsakh reads.