Catholicos: With Turkey`s military support, Azerbaijan committed a  crime by forcibly occupying Artsakh

ArmInfo. With Turkey's military support, Azerbaijan committed a crime by forcibly occupying Artsakh. Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II made this statement at the international conference "Religious Freedom: Preservation of the Armenian Spiritual, Cultural and Historical Heritage in Artsakh"  in  Bern.

According to him,  during the 44-day war unleashed in 2020 and the  large-scale military operations of 2023, Artsakh was occupied and  entirely emptied of its Armenian population. Significant and  strategically vital territories along the borders of the Republic of  Armenia have also been seized, and new demands continue to be imposed  in the course of ongoing peace treaty negotiations.

"Azerbaijan continues to hold the political leadership, civilians and  prisoners of war of Artsakh as, hostages, subjecting them to show  trial and fabricated charges, in gross violation of international  law," the Catholicos said, as quoted by the Chancellery of the Holy  See of Etchmiadzin. 

In response, the WCC Secretary General, said that Christians are  called to be witnesses to the truth, which means standing with the  victims and speaking out against evil.