We, the undersigned civil society organizations\nof Armenia condemn and state our concern on continuous violations of human\nrights of the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in result of the\ndiscriminatory and ethnic cleansing policy of the Azerbaijani regime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result of the 44-day war unleashed\nby Azerbaijan in 2020, some territories of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic had fallen\nunder Azerbaijani control, and the only route of connection and communication\nbetween Armenia (and hence the outside world) and Nagorno-Karabakh is the\nLachin corridor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The territories fallen under Azerbaijani\ncontrol have been ethnically cleansed as a result of the hostilities. A large\nnumber of extrajudicial killings are on record mainly of civilian residents who\nremained in their homes, mostly elderly and people with disabilities, including\nwomen. Following the signature of the tripartite statement on the end of hostilities\non 9 November 2020, the Government of Azerbaijan continues its policy of ethnic\ncleansing of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and terrorizes them with\nvarious methods. This includes but is not limited to psychological pressure and\nintimidation, the creation of a humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh, as\nwell as violating the ceasefire statement and constantly shelling civilian\ncommunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unprovoked violence by the Azerbaijani\nside has become the norm in the aftermath of the 44-day war. After making the\nceasefire statement, three civilians were deliberately killed (executed) and more\nthan ten wounded, and the majority of them were engaged in agricultural works.\nSome of those incidents occurred in the presence of the Russian peacekeepers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The situation has become even more\nalarming since February 2022. On daily basis the Azerbaijani armed forces use\nloudspeakers in line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh in the immediate vicinity\nof Armenian villages, calling the residents to leave their communities \u201cas they\nare living in the territory of Azerbaijan and have to obey the Azerbaijani\ninstructions.\u201d The demands to Armenians to abandon their homes are accompanied\nby threats to use force in the case of disobedience to those \u201corders.\u201d Such\nactions of the Azerbaijani armed forces were reported in villages Khramort,\nNakhijevanik, Nor Shen, and Taghavard. In addition, on 11 March, the Facebook page of\nthe national assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh was hacked, and an announcement was\nposted for the residents of the Askeran region to leave their homes within 168\nhours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regular shooting from different caliber\nweapons, including mortars, were reported in villages in close vicinity with\nthe line of contact, including Khramort, Khnapat, Nakhijevanik, Nor Shen,\nKarmir Shuka, Khnushinak, and Parukh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civilians were also wounded. On 15 February 2022, the\nAzerbaijani armed forces fired at a resident of Khnapat village carrying out\nagricultural work in a field. On 10 March 2022, Suren\nBaghdasaryan, the resident of Khramort village, was injured while working in his garden as a\nresult of one of those mortar attacks. Due to the intense shelling and real\nthreat, women and children were evacuated from Khramort village on the same\nday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Azerbaijani Government also employs various tactics to\ndestroy essential infrastructure necessary for the everyday life of the\nresidents of Nagorno-Karabakh. On 8 March 2022, at night, the only natural gas\npipeline to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia was damaged in the territory under\nthe Azerbaijani control, and the Azerbaijani side has hampered access to the\nRussian peacekeepers and repair workers to the sight to repair the pipeline. Negotiations\nwith the involvement of the Russian peacekeepers have had no results for more\nthan 10 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The gas pipeline was repaired only by 19 March 2022 restoring\nthe gas supply to the Nagorno-Karabakh. Two days later, however, the gas supply\nwas interrupted by Azerbaijani authorities. \nAccording to the Human Rights Defenders of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh\nreliable facts exist that during the reconstruction works or under their guise,\nthe Azerbaijani authorities had installed a valve on the gas pipeline\nsuggesting that they can stop gas supply any moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result about 100,000 inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh have\nbeen completely deprived of natural gas supply, including heating and hot water\nin winter (cold) period with heavy snow and temperature below zero degrees of\nCelsius. Schools, kindergartens, hospitals and other essential facilities and\ninfrastructure remain without gas supply, hence without heating and unable to\ncook. Lack of gas supply also affected the capacity to bake bread; hence, there\nis a shortage of that as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These activities of the Azerbaijani Government are part of a\nsystematic state policy of Armenophobia and hatred towards the Armenians that has\nbeen acknowledged and condemned by international institutions, including the\nECRI, ICJ, the European Parliament, and other bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aggression and genocides happen and\nproliferate throughout the world as the aggressors and authoritarian regimes\nact in complete impunity and without due condemnation from the international\nhuman rights organizations, from the states that govern with values of\ndemocracy and human rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We urge the international community and\ninternational human rights agencies to take all necessary steps to protect the\nhuman rights of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, to ensure that\nAzerbaijan puts an end to the policy of human rights violations and prevent\nhumanitarian crisis as well as to promote the presence of international\norganizations to support the peace and ensure the safety of the population of\nNagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protection\nof Rights without Borders NGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transparency\nInternational Anticorruption Center<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Helsinki\nCitizen\u2019s Assembly Vanadzor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Open\nSociety Foundations-Armenia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Law\nDevelopment and Protection Foundation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analytical\nCentre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
International\nLaw and Policy Center <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public\nJournalism Club NGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor\nEqual Rights\u201d Educational center NGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Article\n3 Human Rights Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Centre\nfor community mobilization and support NGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human\nRights Research Center NGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peace Dialogue NGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Union of Informed Citizens
Journalists\u02bc Club \u201cAsparez\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We, the undersigned civil society organizations of Armenia condemn and state our concern on continuous violations of human rights of the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in result of the discriminatory and ethnic cleansing policy of the Azerbaijani regime. As a result of the 44-day war unleashed by Azerbaijan in 2020, some territories of Nagorno-Karabakh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,74,22,1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34052,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30830\/revisions\/34052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}