Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Masis Mayilyan and Human Rights Defenders of Armenia and Artsakh Arman Tatoyan and Artak Beglaryan today hosted a meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Armenia and international organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia in order to present the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and the humanitarian consequences of the large-scale Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh in detail, as reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.
Beglaryan presented a comprehensive report on the damages caused to the peaceful population and civilian infrastructures in Artsakh and stated that civilian settlements are being shelled with weapons prohibited under international conventions. He also called the attendees’ attention to the epidemiological situation created in Artsakh during the hostilities and emphasized that Azerbaijan’s constant violations of the ceasefire agreements and continuation of the hostilities may lead to an epidemiological disaster in Artsakh.
The Human Rights Defender also informed the attendees about the extremely cruel treatment that Azerbaijan shows to Armenian prisoners of war and civilians and the cases of murders and bruises, noting that Azerbaijanis are positively responding to the videos showing scenes of those inhumane actions of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.
In his report, Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan presented Azerbaijan’s actions against the sovereign territory of Armenia, the target of which are civilians and strategic infrastructures, which have caused deaths and injuries among the population of Armenia. Tatoyan also touched upon the fact that Azerbaijan is deliberately and consistently targeting reporters carrying out their professional activities and posing threats to their life and safety. He viewed this as an offense against freedom of expression and a gross violation of international law.
In his speech, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh Masis Mayilyan presented the steps that the government of Artsakh is taking to mitigate the consequences of the military aggression targeted at the civilian population and emphasized that the direct involvement of the international community and particularly specialized humanitarian organizations is required to overcome the situation created in Artsakh. He stressed that the military aggression, which is being carried out through the use of very modern weapons of Turkey and Azerbaijan and the participation of foreign terrorists, poses a serious threat to the physical safety of the peaceful population of Artsakh and that the only active measure to counter this can be the exercise of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination, that is recognition of independence by the international community.
Summing up the meeting, Minister Mnatsakanyan stated that this aggression, which had been planned in advance, is the ongoing manifestation of Azerbaijan’s policy to isolate the people of Artsakh and annihilate them in their historic homeland. He added that the Azerbaijani aggression wouldn’t have expanded this much, if Turkey hadn’t become directly involved in the conflict with its political and military-technical potential, including in the form of deployment of foreign terrorists in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, which presents a serious danger to the lives and activities of peaceful civilians in not only Artsakh, but also the whole region.
