People in Basements Left Without Adequate Food, Water, Electricity, and Other Essential Living Conditions: RA Ombudsman

The results of the monitoring by the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia and the analyses conducted indicate that the humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh is deepening hour by hour.

According to public sources and information received from citizens, there are numerous casualties and injuries as a result of the Azerbaijani armed forces' attacks, including a significant number of civilians, among them children.

Due to military operations, a large number of civilians, including children, women, and the elderly, have been evacuated from various settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh. Studies of open sources provide grounds to conclude that civilian settlements and infrastructure have been directly targeted.

Reports circulated in open sources and calls received from citizens indicate that the civilian population is terrified and has obvious concerns about their life and security.

Azerbaijan has targeted vital infrastructure, resulting in disruptions to electricity and gas supply. People in basements have been left without adequate food, water, electricity, and other basic living conditions.

Information under continuous monitoring indicates that the provision of healthcare services has been disrupted, with a lack of necessary medical equipment, medications, and even materials required to provide first aid.

This situation has also led to massive violations of the fundamental rights of approximately 30,000 children in Nagorno-Karabakh, including the right to life, the right to live in a safe environment, education, health maintenance, essential living conditions, and other fundamental rights.

The Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia has also conducted continuous monitoring of Azerbaijani public sources and social media reports circulated over the past two days. The results show that calls for violence, including physical retribution, sexual threats, and hate speech continue to spread among various social groups and platforms.

Such postings are especially made by Armenian users sharing information or photos in search of their relatives living in Nagorno-Karabakh. They not only demonstrate the continuity of ingrained anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijani society but also pose a real threat of physical attacks against Armenians, particularly targeting women and children.

In this regard, it is crucial that information about unidentified individuals is not disseminated through open sources, avoiding making them targets for Azerbaijani users. At the same time, aggressive rhetoric and the rhetoric of force continue to be present in the statements of public figures, especially lawmakers.

Thus, the actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces, official statements, media publications, and posts by Azerbaijani users on social networks clearly indicate the aim of the Azerbaijani authorities to carry out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.

This further affirms that Azerbaijan is implementing genocidal policies. Therefore, the response and effective actions of human rights protection mechanisms must be commensurate.