Observer Report
Baku
On the night of October 17, 2020 the armed forces of Armenia attacked Ganja city in Azerbaijan with ballistic missiles. This, third in a row atrocious attack on the second biggest city of Azerbaijan, since the new aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, situated far away from the frontline caused serious civilian casualties. Twelve civilians, including 2 minors, were killed and more than 40 people injured.
Armenia’s deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilians, in a blatant violation of norms and principles of international law, including international humanitarian law, as well as declared humanitarian ceasefire, the purposeful killing of peaceful people constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity and the leadership of Armenia bears full responsibility for this crime, says a press release. Continuous aggression of Armenia, cruel attacks on the civilians must be stopped and the international community should not turn a blind eye to these inhuman acts by Armenia against the people of Azerbaijan.
“We condemn in the strongest manner vicious attacks by Armenia against the Azerbaijani civilians and urge this aggressor state to stop its war crimes.”
The political-military leadership of Armenia, using terror as the state policy, bear responsibility for giving an order on the rocket shelling the peaceful population. The Republic of Azerbaijan declares that based on the national and international law mechanisms the perpetrators of this crime will be brought to justice.
A few day ago, the armed forces of Armenia in a blatant violation of the humanitarian ceasefire continued deliberate shelling of the densely populated Azerbaijani residential areas and civilians. Starting from the morning hours artillery attacks were launched on Aghdam, Aghjabadi, Goranboy and Tartar regions of Azerbaijan.
Deliberate attack of the armed forces of Armenia on the graveyard in Tartar region, during the burial ceremony, killed 3 civilians and seriously wounded 5.
This is yet another act of barbarism and crime against humanity by Armenia, purposefully targeting the Azerbaijani civilians and indiscriminately killing a peaceful population.
Gross violation of the humanitarian ceasefire by Armenia, demonstrates once again that the country is not interested in the political settlement of the conflict and pursues the goal of continuing its aggressive policy against Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on Saturday to a new humanitarian ceasefire from midnight (2000 GMT) in fighting over Azerbaijan’s ethnic Armenian-controlled enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, both countries said in identical statements.
Meanwhile, a telephone conversation took place between Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov on the initiative of the Azerbaijani side.
Minister Jeyhun informed his Russian counterpart of the latest tensions in the region. He brought to the attention of Sergey Lavrov that on October 14 around 1 am and then again around 8 am the armed forces of Armenia activated their missile systems in the area bordering the occupied Kalbajar region of Azerbaijan, and were ready to open fire on Azerbaijani territory.
The armed forces of Azerbaijan destroyed these missile systems in launchpads as legitimate military targets. Minister Bayramov emphasized that the armed forces of Azerbaijan acted within the right to self-defense and to protect its civilian population, with due account of recent missile attacks by Armenia against the civilian population and infrastructure of Azerbaijan, including the cities of Ganja and Mingachevir.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed his serious concern over the loss of civilian lives. He emphasized the importance of respecting the humanitarian ceasefire agreed upon during the Moscow meeting.
