Azerbaijan took advantage of the international community's total concern about the crisis in Ukraine and took rude actions in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Eduard Aghajanyan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations, said addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) during the spring session.

Based on the government’s request, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) indicated temporary measures, calling on Azerbaijan to refrain from actions that may contribute to the violation of the conventional rights of civilians, the deputy said.

However, he noted that, even after the indication of interim measures by the Court, Azerbaijan continues to violate its obligations under the Convention.

Since February 2022, the Azerbaijani armed forces have been constantly terrorizing the population of the border villages of Artsakh through various criminal acts of physical threat and psychological pressure, through direct, threatening and intimidating statements against the civilian population using loudspeakers. In regularly played statements, the population of the border villages is asked to stop farming and leave their homes, otherwise they are threatened with physical reprisals against their families, Aghajanyan said.

He also noted that during the same period, on March 7, the gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh was disrupted, as a result of which more than 150,000 people were left without heating, with 1.5 meters of snow on the ground and unprecedented frosty conditions.

All of the above is a classic example of an act of ethnic cleansing. And if on international platforms Azerbaijani officials often state that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is over and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh can live peacefully in their homes, on the ground Azerbaijan is trying to speed up the last round of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, taking advantage of the fact that the international community has been distracted from Ukrainian crisis, the MP added.

Armenia remains committed to the peace agenda in the South Caucasus and sees a final and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the auspices of the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, Aghajanyan concluded.