- 1 October, 2024
- Announcements
The Human Dimension Meetings of the OSCE ODIHR are taking place in Warsaw these days, where Daniel Ioannisyan, Programs Coordinator at Union of Informed Citizens NGO, spoke today, addressing the anti-Armenian policy and impunity of Azerbaijan.
«As you already know, Azerbaijan, which has absolutely no respect for democratic values and human rights, simply used the military to clean its territory from all Armenians. Just within several days, at least 99.9 percent of Armenians left everything they had and took to the road without knowing where they were going to stay and how they were going to earn their living.
Our colleagues from Freedom House and other human rights organizations have prepared a very detailed report on how this ethnic cleansing was organized. They are going to present it during their side event here, in this plenary hall, on Monday at 4 p.m.
But let me underline that committing a war crime against Armenians is an act of heroism and not a crime in Azerbaijan. I will bring a couple of examples:
One example is the execution of 7 Armenian POWs, which was filmed and published by Azerbajanis and no prosecution followed. Just 7 Armenians standing on their knees were shot dead by a group of Azerbaijani soldiers with rounds of Kalashnikov machine guns. That is not a crime for them.
Or a case with mutilation of the body of a dead Armenian female serviceperson. Azerbaijani soldiers stripped her body, cut off her legs and fingers, placed a stone in her eye socket and one of her severed fingers in her mouth, and spray painted over her naked body. Of course they filmed it all and of course no investigation followed.
Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases, but a result of a decades-long state policy of their president.
In 2012, Ilham Aliyev pardoned and rewarded Ramil Safarov, who had killed a sleeping Armenian soldier in Budapest during NATO training. In 2016, Ilham Aliyev rewarded an Azerbaijani serviceman who had decapitated the body of an Armenian soldier.
There is nothing surprising about that. In his nationwide address, president Aliev stated: “We are driving them (Armenians) away like dogs! Azerbaijani soldiers drive them away like dogs.”
Just a note that even a bigger war criminal, Vladimir Putin, is not using that type of wording. But why should Ilham Aliev limit himself? Isn’t he forgiven for it all?
High-ranking US diplomats were saying that ethnic cleansing is a red line for the United States, that there will be no business as usual with Azerbaijan. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not see those red lines and I can see business as usual.
Thank you».
