Baku to take necessary int'l legal steps on crimes of Armenians
By Laman Ismayilova
Armenia has violated international humanitarian law, and Baku intends to inform the international community about this, said Hikmet Hajiyev, Spokesman the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
"Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan, the policy of bloody ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, genocide in Khojaly, torture of Azerbaijani captives and hostages, murder and burial in mass graves and other similar war crimes against humanity has been documented and presented to international organizations," Hajiyev said, while commenting on the accusations of the Armenian side on violation of the Geneva Conventions requirements.
"Finally, the official Yerevan realized the existence of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law," the spokesman added.
Armenia still continues shooting civilians along the contact line of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, killing and wounding civilians.
Since the early morning on April 2 Armenia intensified military activity on the front line, committed acts that are equal to war crimes and crimes against humanity. As a result of the shelling 32 settlements, six civilians were killed, including two children under 16 years, and 26 residents were wounded.
Great damage was caused to public and private property, civil infrastructure, 232 houses, 99 poles for power transmission lines, three electrical substations, water mains and gas pipelines length in kilometers were seriously damaged or destroyed. Missiles bombed schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure - schools, hospitals, and mosques. The assessment of the damage caused to civilians and to objects continues. To evade responsibility for these deeds the Armenian side spreads staged photos and videos with scenes of the dead and misinformation, Hajiyev informed.
The Foreign Ministry is committed to continue the work on informing the international community about the personal responsibility of members of the military and political leadership of Armenia for their crimes, and take the necessary international legal steps.
For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.
Over the entire period of its existence, the OSCE Minsk Group, which acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, failed to move forward in resolving the long lasting conflict.
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