Monday, June 13 2022 18:30

ArmInfo.The fate of the Shahumyan region is a vivid example of the prospect of any status of Artsakh within Azerbaijan. Artsakh Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan wrote  on his Facebook page.

As he recalled, 30 years ago, as a result of repressions, attacks and  criminal acts by Azerbaijan, 20,000 people of the Shahumyan region of  the Artsakh Republic were deported and ousted from their homeland,  more than 700 people were killed and disappeared, historical Armenian  communities were emptied of Armenians and looted, the Armenian  religious and cultural values of region were vandalized and  destroyed.

"The houses of the Armenians were divided, and the "new masters" from  Azerbaijan wrote their names on the gates with oil. The church was  desecrated and turned into a sheep pen. The cross was broken, the  bell was smashed with a rifle shot, and the fragments were scattered  back and forth," eyewitnesses say.

The crimes committed against the people of Shahumyan were an act of  "punishment" for their free will, the realization of their right to  live independently and with dignity in their homeland.  The issue of  justice for the people of Shahumyan, deprived of their homeland on  the basis of ethnic-religious affiliation and the restoration of  their violated rights, was not clearly set on the agenda, the  Azerbaijani authorities were not held accountable for the crimes  committed against them. Moreover, this impunity continues to breed  new crimes, which we witnessed during the Azerbaijani aggression  unleashed against the people of Artsakh in April 2016 and September  2020, and continue to witness after the November 9 trilateral  statement on the ceasefire.

The international community continues to show condemnable  indifference to what is happening, which does not follow from the  principle of the universality of the protection of human rights.