Artsakh HRD Gegham Stepanyan wrote on his Facebook page:
“Azerbaijan’s criminal and terrorist policy against the people of Artsakh in the last days of the nearly 200-day-long blockade is intensively combined with the undeniable facts and manifestations of the use of force and the threat of force by Azerbaijan, targeting people and equipment carrying out agricultural work, as well as the protection of the civilian population of Artsakh—units of the defense army.
To prepare an information ground for advancing its criminal policy, the Azerbaijani side regularly spreads false information about violations of the ceasefire regime by the Artsakh Defense Ministry. This is unmistakably proven by the following statement made two days ago by the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Zakir Hasanov: “If they resort to some kind of provocations and illegal actions, then the issue of these illegal armed organizations can be solved by only one corps of the Azerbaijani army, and that too, not with full strength.”
In other words, by regularly accusing the Armenian side of violating the ceasefire, Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership tries to justify violations of the ceasefire regime on its initiative, mislead international actors, and insist on the illegal and unfounded demand for the demilitarization of Artsakh’s armed forces.
In the direction of the Martuni and Martakert regions of Artsakh in 2023. Armo Abgaryan (born in 1969, Gishi village, Martunu region of Artsakh), Gagik Balayan (born in 1987, Martuni region, Gishi village of Artsakh), Samvel Torosyan (born in 2003) were killed as a result of another provocation by the Azerbaijani armed forces on June 28. born, Artsakh, Stepanakert city), Yervand Tadevosyan (born in 2003, Kashatagh region of Artsakh), no injured servicemen. All the persons mentioned above were killed in the places of permanent deployment of the Defense Forces units due to the use of long-range artillery means and ATS by the Azerbaijani armed forces.
The four people who died due to today’s Azerbaijani military attack were not only people protecting their homeland and civilians from Azerbaijan’s continuous military aggression but also people who had families and daily lives. Two of them, 54-year-old Armo Abgaryan and 36-year-old Gagik Balayan were volunteers from the Gish community of Artsakh, whose main activity was agriculture. Armo had four children, two minors, and Gagik had four minor children. The Azerbaijani criminal regime is responsible for all these inhuman sufferings and deprivations of the people of Artsakh, who are still fighting against the disastrous consequences of the 2020 war.
It is noteworthy that even the presence of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh and the attention of various international actors to the current situation in Artsakh do not stop the aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan, which continues to act with complete impunity. Azerbaijan misleads the international community by talking about peace while at the same time offering either forced subjugation or expulsion from its homeland under the unrestricted use of force and the threat of force.
As long as all international actors do not punish Azerbaijan for its criminal actions and crimes against the life and other fundamental rights of the people of Artsakh, the peace process will be used as a cover for the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Artsakh,” the post states.
