Azerbaijan should demand int'l community to pressure on aggressor Armenia, Moldova's ex-Ombudsman
By Rashid Shirinov
Moldova's former ombudsman believes that Azerbaijan should demand persistently the international community to take definite measures with regard to Armenia, which has occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory.
Aurelia Grigoriu, Chairman of the Moldavian Public Chamber, made the statement after visiting the frontline of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops on May 2. Her visit coincided to the recent violation of armistice breach by Armenia on the contact line of troops on April 27-28, killing 2 civilians and injuring 7 others.
“The impressions after visiting the frontline are very hard and complicated, as we saw the damage, committed by Armenian attacks to Azerbaijani civilians – not only material damage, but also physical,” she said.
Armenian army shelled the Azerbaijani districts from large-caliber weapons and artillery damaging 256 houses, four schools, two medical places, one kindergarten only in Terter district. They fully destroyed 32 houses here.
“Some people were hospitalized with wounds and contusions. This fact, of course, makes a very bad impression," Grigoriu noted, adding that people are deprived of secure life on the frontal zone.
Despite an agreement to follow the armistice reached in 1994 Armenia continues to breach ceasefire and targets Azerbaijani civilians in contravention of international documents, in particular the Geneva Conventions.
"It is clear that these attacks target to scare the local people and make them leave their native lands. However, people stay very firm and nobody is going to leave. Only women and children were evacuated, but men stated that they will not leave their lands,” Grigoriu said.
She believes that Azerbaijan must use all levers of pressure not only to convey Azerbaijani realities to the world, but also to achieve the justice to be restored.
Until today, the international community has not taken any measures against Armenia. We see that they are allowed to hang the so-called “flag” of occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, allowed to present information about Nagorno-Karabakh as a tourism place. All this should be initially suppressed,” Grigoriu noted.
The measures are provided by international law but not all of them are used, she believes. They could be economical or political impacts, blockade, as well as boycotting of the aggressor country's government. All these methods have not been used yet. "The measures can be assumed by UN, United Nations Security Council, European organizations and institutions," she stressed.
Armenia fought a lengthy war with Azerbaijan in 1990s, subjecting over one million of people to the ethnic cleansing. Armenia continues its aggressive policy ignoring the international calls to withdraw from the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries, while frequent provocations amid a fragile truce results in human causalities.
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