Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Remaining unpunished for the crimes that it committed against the Azerbaijani people over many years, Armenia’s military dictatorship continues aggression towards Azerbaijan using its impunity.

In a recent attempt at aggression toward Azerbaijani civilians, the Armenian military fired at a wedding ceremony in a settlement near the frontline.

Baku has condemned Armenia’s aggression toward civilians, stating this country bears responsibility to the international community for grossly violating international humanitarian law.

“Armenian military’s firing from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories at civilians taking part in a wedding ceremony in the Tartar region’s Gapanli village and as a result wounding three people, including a minor, is another gross violation of international humanitarian law principles by Armenia,” Hikmet Hajiyev, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman told Trend on September 2.

As a result of the shelling by the Armenian military, three people – two adults and a minor – were wounded. Mushkinaz Tanriverdieva (63 years) and Madina Ahmadova (67 years) were hospitalized and Zahra Alizade, which suffered minor injuries, is being treated at home.

Liya Bayramova, the spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Health Ministry told local media that Tanriverdieva required an operation.

Hajiyev said international humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians during armed conflicts, noting that under international humanitarian law, such deliberate acts by the Armenian armed forces are war crimes.

“This proves once again that Armenia is absolutely far from fulfilling its commitments,” Hajiyev said.

He added that the killing of civilians has become common place for the civilian and military leadership of Armenia, which committed crimes against humanity during the war and most notably during the Khojaly genocide.

Hajiyev recalled that back on March 8, 2011, nine-year-old Fariz Badalov was killed as a result of a sniper fire by the Armenian armed forces.

He added that the international community must condemn such irresponsible and criminal behavior by Armenia, including the last incident.

“Intentional violations of ceasefire by Armenia, provocations on contact line, the country’s provocative policy, particularly concerning the events in Khankendi with the involvement of political leadership in Yerevan under the guise of the ‘independence’ of the criminal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, and holding of ‘elections’ for ‘local authorities’ once again show that the true goal of that country is to continue the occupation of Azerbaijani territories and maintain the current status quo,” Hajiyev said.

He also added that the latest incident, which is indeed a war crime by Armenia, will be brought to the attention of international organizations.

The Armenian armed forces frequently wound villagers in their homes or on their farms. Earlier, classes in nearby schools were delayed because of heavy shelling by Armenian troops.

Due to the frequent ceasefire violations by the Armenian armed forces, the residents of Azerbaijani villages located near the frontline have gone through great difficulties, and the constant shelling of their homes has hampered their daily lives.

Commenting on the most recent incident, Bahar Muradova, the vice-speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament said that Armenia is so disconnected from humanity that Armenians are able to even shell wedding tents.

She said such provocations committed daily by the Armenian military on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, lead to the suffering of the people and damage to their property.

“The latest incident also causes a serious concern. It once again demonstrates that the existence of this conflict remains a major threat to the region and the world,” Muradova said.

She went on to say that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group need to pay attention to the settlement of the problem in general, instead of simply talking about incidents which occur daily on the frontline.

“Every time we see that when it comes to the conflict, the focus is to find the ways, the mechanisms to eliminate such incidents. But even with such attention, these incidents continue,” Muradova said.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs should thus use all opportunities to accelerate the settlement of the conflict, according to Muradova.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. Since the war, the Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Armenia continues the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the armed forces.

Peace talks brokered by mediators from Russia, France, and the U.S. have produced no results so far.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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