Friday, October 30 2020 23:44

ArmInfo.Today the Human Rights Defender of Armenia and the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh sent joint invitations to all Heads of Diplomatic representations and International organizations accredited in the Republic of Armenia to  visit Artsakh. Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan  announced on his facebook page.

The statement, in particular, reads: <Since September 27, 2020, the  military forces of Azerbaijan has been carrying out targeted and  indiscriminate intensive strikes and shelling towards civilian  settlements and peaceful population of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno  Karabakh).

Attacks are indiscriminate and in most cases targeted with clear  purpose to cause as much damage to civilians as possible, including  killings, injuries, and mass destructions. 

This is proved not only by targeted air and artillery attacks, their  grave consequences but also by repeated use of forbidden cluster  munitions, cluster warhead missiles towards villages and cities,  schools and kindergartens, hospitals and Armenian religious and  cultural heritage. Attacks on peaceful population have become more  and more intensive.

At least 44 civilians were killed and 141 were injured, including  children, women, the elderly, as of October 30.

On October 28, Azerbaijani military heavily struck the Central  Hospital and the Maternity Hospital of Stepanakert, as well as  residential areas of Stepanakert, Shushi and other communities.

As a result of the Azerbaijani attacks, 24,000 children have been  deprived of education and more than 29,000 children had to leave  their homes for other communities of Artsakh or for Armenia.

In addition to targeting civilian objects and population, jihadists  and members of terrorist groups from Lybia, Afghanistan, northern  parts of Syria and other countries together with members of the  Azerbaijani armed forces, with the extensive support of Turkey,  commit atrocities: beheadings of members of Artsakh Defense Army,  mutilations, willful killings of prisoners of war and civilians.

All above mentioned is accompanied with massive hate speech and  aggressive calls for violence, including killings from Turkish and  Azerbaijani media and social network sources towards ethnic  Armenians. 

Children are targeted with social media attacks illustrating violence  and torture. And these enjoy state support from Azerbaijan. 

All these factors clearly demonstrate the policy of ethnic cleansing  and terror-inspiring means by Azerbaijan against the Armenian  civilian population. These have already caused a humanitarian  disaster and sufferings for tens of thousands of peaceful innocent  people including children, women, and elderly.  Thus, we kindly  invite all heads of diplomatic missions and International  organizations accredited in Armenia [by individual invitations] to  carry out a humanitarian mission to Nagorno Karabakh to verify the  real situation with human rights violations, evidence of cluster  munitions used and damaged caused to the peaceful population of  Artsakh.

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia undertakes the responsibility to  accompany you to Artsakh, namely Stepanakert and Shushi and, together  with the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh in close coordination with  respective authorities of Armenia and Artsakh guarantee the security  of the mission and ensure its pure humanitarian nature.

It should be ensured that the international principle "No one should  be left behind and no human right ignored" is not a nice expression,  but an idea invented to protect real people in real life>.