Eduard Aghajanyan: Azerbaijan is attempting to force a final round of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh

My speech at the PACE Spring Session/25.04.2022

Dear colleagues,

Indeed, the crisis in Ukraine and its humanitarian consequences are of utmost importance for the Council of Europe at this point.
Unfortunately, as one could anticipate, Azerbaijan took advantage of the total preoccupation of international community with the Ukrainian crisis, undertaking blatant actions in breach of European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

More specifically, based on the Government’s request, the European Court of Human Rights indicated interim measures by calling on Azerbaijan to refrain from actions that would contribute to breaches of civilians’ Convention rights and to respect their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Despite the foregoing, even after the indication of the interim measures by the Court, Azerbaijan has continued to violate its obligations under the Convention.

As such, Since February 2022, Azerbaijani armed forces
have continuously terrorized the population of the bordering villages of Artsakh through various criminal acts of physical threat and psychological pressure, through direct, threatening and intimidating statements addressed to the civilian population using loudspeakers. In regularly played statements the population of bordering villages are being told to stop farming and leave their homes, otherwise being threatened by physical reprise of their families.

During the same period, On March 7, the gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh was disrupted, leaving over 150,000 people without heating, with 1.5 meters of snow on the ground and at an unprecedented freezing condition.

With much international pressure, Azerbaijan restored the gas supply on March 19 only to cut it out again after 2 days.

Dear colleagues, all of the abovementioned is a classical example of an act of ethnic cleansing. And while on international platforms, Azerbaijani officials often state that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is over and that Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh can live peacefully in their homes, on the ground Azerbaijan is attempting to force a final round of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, taking advantage of international community’s distraction by the Ukrainian crisis.

Despite this, Armenia remains committed to an agenda of peace in the South Caucasus and sees the final and peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the auspices of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship.

Thank you.