Today’s infiltration of Azerbaijani military forces into the village of Pharukh of Askeran region of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is the logical continuation of criminal policy of Azerbaijan. The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsperson) of Armenia, Kristine Grigoryan, noted this in a statement released Thursday night. The statement continues as follows:

In breach of all well-known norms of international law this behavior continues weeks and months – through the various acts of intimidation, terrorization and creation of unbearable conditions for normal life of people of Artsakh. This penetration is yet another proof of the fact that the weeks-long targeting of the population of Khramort village didn’t bring the desired result – people didn’t leave their homeland, so Azerbaijan applied to its well-proven behavior which is the provocation.

It is a shameful fact that the ethnic cleansing policy of Artsakh is the state priority of Azerbaijan which undermines the fulfillment of the obligations of international law and infringes the signatures of that country put under its legally binding commitments.

The “uncomfortable” silence of international community about voicing out the human rights violations is not being remedied by real actions to address the situation. Meanwhile the people of Artsakh have same rights as humans in any other part of the world.

I strongly condemn criminal behavior of Azerbaijan and call to international human rights organizations and actors to ACT to STOP this genocidal policy towards people of Artsakh.