Azerbaijan destroys monument to Great Patriotic War victims in  village of Aterk

ArmInfo. Azerbaijan destroyed a monument to the victims of the Great Patriotic War in the village of Aterk in occupied Artsakh. This is evidenced by video footage published on December 17 on the Tik-Tok platform, Monument Watch reports.

The Organization recalled that the monument was erected in 1965-1966 in the center of the village. 400 fighters from the village of Aterk participated in the war, 195 of whom died. The monument is a spring- monument, on which the names and surnames of the deceased residents of Aterk are recorded. The monument also suffered some damage during the First Artsakh War: traces of machine gun bullets are visible to the naked eye.

Monument Watch emphasized that the deliberate destruction of the monument to the victims of the Great Patriotic War violates Article 8 of the Rome Statute and considers it a grave crime against humanity.  Damage to the monument may be prosecuted in international courts as a war crime under Article 4 of the 1954 Hague Convention and the additionally adopted paragraph "a" of Article 15.

"The destruction of the monument also violates the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st rules of International Humanitarian Law. It is extremely important to emphasize the fact that the International Court of Justice confirmed that the laws in force in the occupied territories, including provisions on the protection of cultural property, have received the status of international customary law (infra Jurisprudence), that is, they act as a universal and inviolable rule and are mandatory for compliance in all states.

It should be added that the destruction of monuments dedicated to the Great Patriotic War is one of the directions of the state policy of Azerbaijan, and, since the war of 2020, the monument to the liberators of Hadrut, monumental complexes dedicated to the Artsakh liberation struggle, and the victims of the Great Patriotic War in Shushi have already been destroyed.

In addition, three separate monuments dedicated to the Great  Patriotic War, the First "The Artsakh War and the Victims of the  Armenian Genocide," Monument Watch said in a statement.