Thursday, March 7 2019 15:18

ArmInfo.  The current and former Human Rights Ombudsmen of the Republic of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan and Ruben Melikyan, on the march 6th, took part in the conference at the European Parliament titled "Armenophobia: historical and present-day  resurgence," which was organized by the European Armenian Federation  for Justice and Democracy and the Tufenkian Foundation supported by  member of the European Parliament Dr. Eleni Theocharous.

According to the Artsakh ombudsman's press release, in his speech, A.  Beglaryan presented especially the military direction of Armenophobia  emphasizing that in recent decade it was expressed in a very salient  way during military operations in 2016 April war.  He presented war  crimes and other atrocities against Armenian military servicemen and  civilians, as well as the use of prohibited weapons and methods by  the Azerbaijani armed forces. 

The Ombudsman emphasized that recorded massive and brutal violations  of human rights have been largely derived from the continuing  anti-Armenian policy and ideology in which killing of any Armenian is  considered to be a model behavior by the Azerbaijani state. The  factual glorification of Ramil Safarov and the rewards of military  servicemen who committed war crimes, and many other official  statements and actions are the best evidence of this. He also  emphasized that the Armenophobic state policy not only continually  violates and endangers a number of fundamental rights of Armenians of  Artsakh, but also any progress in conflict settlement process  practically becomes impossible. 

Former Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh Ruben Melikyan touched upon  the examples of Azerbaijan's Armenophobia policy in the educational  and informational spheres, presenting their systemic and lasting  nature. He drew attention particularly to the fact, that the  information field presents short-term moods, and Armenophobia in the  educational system predetermines the mentality of future generations  which means that long-lasting tendancies are not positive. 

The conference was also attended by Turkish human rights activist  Ragip Zarakolu, Jewish blogger Alexander Lapshin and Polish  Armenologist Yakob Osiecki.