Impunity encourages Azerbaijan`s blockade of Artsakh - NKR foreign  office

ArmInfo.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh has issued the following statement: 

Statement reads: 

"On these days, we pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims  of the mass pogroms of Armenians in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan,  carried out 33 years ago. Murders, robberies, violence and atrocities  committed with exceptional cruelty continued for a whole week - from  13 to 20 January 1990. People who escaped death were subjected to  organized deportation. According to various sources, between 150 and  300 people were killed as a result of this inhuman crime.

"Baku pogroms, along with the 1988 massacre of Armenians in Sumgait,  marked the beginning of another monstrous stage in Azerbaijan's  genocidal policy towards Armenians. Pogroms and mass killings,  widespread and systematic deportation of the Armenian population of  the former Azerbaijan SSR, including operation "Ring" on the  deportation of Armenians from the border villages of Artsakh in 1991,  waging aggressive wars against the Republic of Artsakh in 1991-1994,  in April 2016 and in September- November 2020, accompanied by war  crimes committed by Azerbaijani armed forces, became manifestations  of this policy. As a result of these criminal acts, thousands of  people were killed, hundreds of thousands became victims of ethnic  cleansing.

"Widespread and consistent propaganda of xenophobia against  Armenians, accompanied by their dehumanization, encouragement of war  crimes and crimes motivated by ethnic intolerance, became an integral  part of Azerbaijan's policy to exterminate Armenians in their  historical homeland. Specialized international organizations  regularly noted the extreme manifestations of Armenophobia in  Azerbaijan.  Unfortunately, no effective steps have been taken to  combat them. As a result, a fertile ground has developed in  Azerbaijan for the commission and justification of crimes against  humanity.

"Impunity for both the Baku pogroms and the previous and subsequent  mass crimes led to a situation where Azerbaijan considers it  acceptable to blockade the 120,000 population of Artsakh and create  conditions for a humanitarian catastrophe.

"Lasting peace in the region cannot be achieved on the basis of the  results of Baku's genocidal policy. Such policy must be resolutely  condemned and rejected by the international community, and the  immediate lifting of the blockade of Artsakh, which has been going on  for over a month, should become the first step to this end."