Statement delivered by Ambassador Armen Papikyan at the 1287th PC meeting on the Aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh and Armenia with the Direct Involvement of Turkey and Foreign Terrorist Fighters

29 October, 2020

Mr. Chairman,

Already a month has passed since Azerbaijan, instigated and emboldened by Turkey, attacked Artsakh and its people. During this month the adversary attacked with UAVs, aircrafts, helicopters, tanks, Azerbaijanis, terrorists, mercenaries, as well as Turkish special operation units.

For 33 days Azerbaijan, pursuant of its policy of scorched earth and ethnic cleansing, bombed the cities, villages, communities of Artsakh, targeting civilian population and infrastructure. Yesterday, to mark one month of war, the civilian infrastructures and residential areas of the capital city of Stepanakert and the city of Shushi came under heavy air and rocket bombardment. Among the targets was also the maternity hospital of Stepanakert. Today during the night, at 2:15am the Azerbaijani forces continued to target Stepanakert with “Smerch” missiles during an air raid that lasted more than one hour. Missile strikes were carried out against the cities of Askeran, Martuni, while the city of Martakert was bombarded by military aviation. There are numerous casualties and wounded. There were reports about the use of Turkish F-16s during yesterday’s air raids. If confirmed, it will once again prove beyond any doubt that Turkish military jets are continuing active engagement in military actions.

As we speak now, massive shelling of the cities of Setpanakert and Martuni continues.

These war crimes, which are gross violations of international humanitarian law and customary law, clearly demonstrate that the people of Artsakh are Azerbaijan’s target. The attempts of the Azerbaijani military-political leadership to kill the life in Artsakh will fail and the perpetrators of these crimes will be held responsible.

After one month of violence it will be useful to briefly recall the events and particularly the signals that were coming from Azerbaijan and Turkey during the period preceding the war.

Several days prior to the attack the President of Azerbaijan publicly claimed that, “negotiations are virtually non-existent” and “we will by all means return to our lands”. The leadership of Azerbaijan has been claiming that “international law does not work in the world today, and international treaties are just a piece of paper, having no value.”

These claims were not new, of course, but when considered in combination with several other factors, both internal and external, were a clear signal of the definite and final shift towards the military option of resolution of the conflict.

Internally, we have seen the further build up in the already militaristic rhetoric of Azerbaijani leadership. The sacking of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, probably because Mammadyarov after a failed attempt at military incursion against Armenia’s north-east borders in July this year, also signaled that Azerbaijani government is not interested anymore in the negotiated solution to the conflict.

The external factor is the so-called “third party” - Turkey - with its highly belligerent stance and muscle flexing with respect to all its neighbouring states and its claims to some imaginary legitimate historic rights when it comes to the South Caucasus. In July, President Erdogan stated that Turkey will fulfil the mission that their grandfathers carried out in the Caucasus.

Turkey also provided tangible military support in terms of military personnel and equipment, as well as political backing by using all its influence for the sake of support of the Azerbaijani cause.

Another factor, a new element or feature of the war against Artsakh is the deployment of FTFs and jihadist groups, recruited by Turkey in the territories of Syria and Libya under its control to fights on the side of Azerbaijan. The presence of terrorists and jihadists in the region, moreover, their incorporation into the ranks of Azerbaijani military are the facts proven and confirmed, corroborated by the witness accounts and stories told by terrorists themselves and, what is more, by transfer of bodies of killed FTFs and jihadists to Syria for burial.

We are receiving credible information that Azerbaijani military creates on the territories that are now under its control, bases for these terrorist groups. We have already warned that the proliferation of international terrorist and jihadist groups into South Caucasus is a major threat to the security and safety of the entire region and beyond, and a challenge not only for Artsakh and Armenia, but for every country in the region itself and in its neighbourhood. We also warned that Azerbaijan will gradually turn into a hotbed of terrorism, and with each passing day we discover yet another evidence substantiating our assumptions.

We have seen this in Syria, where Turkey under the pretext of helping their “brothers and sisters” channeled the FTFs to Syria and later sent its military to that country. Under the pretext of salvation it plundered that part of the country and put in place a whole network for illegal trafficking of natural resources.

In Syria the invasion disrupted the economic and social fabric of the society, leading to poverty and destitution, misery and despair. The region was turned into a hub and safe haven for terrorists and jihadists. The main source for livelihood became mercenaryism and terrorism. As a result, many have become terrorists for hire, recruited and used by Turkey as proxy army to fight its battles.

Mr. Chairman,

We have already mentioned previously that Turkish‑made (and Turkish‑operated) military equipment and weapons used in Artsakh to indiscriminately target and kill civilians and damage civilian settlements and infrastructure. For the last couple of days the air defence units of the Defense Army of Artsakh downed around ten Bayraktar TB2 Turkish made unmanned combat aerial vehicles, including one today morning.

The production of this military equipment relies heavily on technologies and components supplied to Turkey by various States, including OSCE participating States. We appreciate the steps taken by some States to suspend the export of important technologies and components to Turkey, and we call on others to follow suit and thereby demonstrate their sense of social and political responsibility.

Mr. Chairman,

In the course of one month of war Azerbaijani military committed acts that amount to war crimes. The office of the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh in collaboration with the Human Rights Defender of Armenia collected and published evidence in this regard. The European Court for Human Rights through its relevant decisions on application of interim measures against Azerbaijan and Turkey already affirmed the responsibility of these two states for the aggression and war crimes and violations of the Articles of the ECHR on Right to Life and Prohibition of Torture.

To preempt the usual denials from Azerbaijani and Turkish delegations of any wrongful act against the civilian population of Artsakh, I should simply refer to the interview of President Aliyev to the U.S. Fox News TV channel on October 26, where he said, and I quote “... and our attacks there were only before the 9th of October. We didn't attack any civilians or cities in the Nagorno Karabakh after that”. It seems that president Aliyev is under the false illusion that international humanitarian law and customary law came into force on October 9, thus freeing him and the military of that country of any responsibility for the committed war crimes.

Mr. Chairman,

We would like to draw the attention of the Permanent Council to the fact that for already a month Azerbaijan hinders the exchange of remains of fallen soldiers. We deplore that and warn that aside from being a violation of all the common norms of war, this may lead to dire consequences in terms of epidemiological situation. Azerbaijan rejects the good offices of ICRC. Instead, Azerbaijani authorities from time to time come up with ludicrous proposals for the exchange of bodies. In mockery of all the common law norms and basic human decency, they staged for propaganda purposes a show, which displayed a complete disrespect towards the remains of fallen soldiers and has proved for umpteenth time the fundamental differences in terms of value systems of the leaderships of Artsakh and Azerbaijan. Though we have received positive information from the capital, but I'll refrain from making any comment at this stage.

The all-out war against Artsakh and its people as well as the above mentioned actions by Azerbaijan prove beyond any doubt that Artsakh under no circumstances and in no way can be a part of Azerbaijan. By its actions Azerbaijan has lost all moral, political or legal claim to any sort of authority over Artsakh and its people. Hence, only international recognition of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination and the creation of an independent State can provide the necessary political and legal remedies for ensuring the safety and security of the people of Artsakh.

Mr. Chairman,

I would like to use this opportunity and once again to commend the courage and dedication of journalists and media professionals, who work in difficult environment and in hot spots, including in Stepanakert and other cities of Artsakh to document and report on the crimes against humanity and war crimes that on a daily basis are being committed by Azerbaijan, with the direct involvement of Turkey, foreign terrorist fighters and jihadist groups.

Several journalists from France 24, Le Monde, Russian and local media were severely wounded. Russian journalist Yuri Kotenok was wounded while reporting about the first strike on the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi just some hours before. He was caught by the second shelling. The Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General’s Office launched a criminal case against Russian war reporter and blogger Semyon Pegov, which resembles the case of Alexander Lapshin who hardly survived the Azerbaijani prison.

Ever since the aggression, Azerbaijan banned the access to the country of any foreign journalists except from the Turkish Government-controlled media. The latter was embedded with the troops and reported from the front line just minutes after the beginning of the offensive, which is another evidence that the aggression was pre-planned with active participation of the official Ankara.

Azerbaijan heavily sensors information from the conflict zone and, in the absence of the international media and the local free reporting, disseminates overzealous rally-around-the-flag propaganda, misinformation and groundless accusations. The “France 24” reported from Baku during the war that they do not have a freedom of reporting and all their moves are controlled by the government.

Mr. Chairman

I would have thought it to be at least ridiculous that the delegation of a country with an abysmal track record of human rights, freedom of media and expression raises concerns about the situation with freedom of media in another country. I could have talked for hours about documented violations by the Azerbaijani authorities of all the fundamental and basic human rights. Azerbaijan is the least indicated country to lecture or engage in a name-and-shame exercise when it comes to human rights in general, and the freedom of media in particular. We all perfectly remember that it is due to Azerbaijan that we do not have today a Representative on Freedom of Media.

We deplore that Azerbaijan uses every single pretext for disseminating disinformation and anti-Armenian propaganda. We have already talked during previous discussions on Azerbaijan’s aggression against Artsakh, about Azerbaijani propaganda machine, which even now continues its Armenophobic and hateful rhetoric. Monitoring of mass media and especially social networks has revealed a barrage of hatred and incitement to hatred and calls for violence, including calls for killings, disseminated from Turkish and Azerbaijani users on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and other social media networks.

And a rather peculiar pattern of Azerbaijani propaganda emerged in recent days, which we could call a mirroring or copycat tactics.

After reports of FTFs and jihadists participation in the fights in Nagorno Karabakh were confirmed, Azerbaijan and Turkey issued unsubstantiated claims of reports of allegedly PKK members allegedly fighting on the side of Armenia.

After Azerbaijan used cluster munitions against the Artsakh capital Stepanakert, which was well documented and confirmed including by international organisations, Azerbaijan claimed that Armenia used cluster munitions against city of Gandzak, or as Azerbaijani call it Gyanja, without giving a second thought to the fact that Armenia does not have Israeli made cluster munition.

After Artsakh ombudsman warned that there were confirmed cases that some units of Azerbaijani military wear Armenian uniform in order to confuse the local population, Azerbaijan claimed that, as they allege, PKK members fighting on the side of Armenia wear Azerbaijani uniforms, so that when they are killed, the Armenian side can claim that these are not Azerbaijani troops but terrorists. Such a perplexing and twisted logic.

And this is not at all an exhaustive list of such propaganda tricks employed by Azerbaijani propaganda gurus.

It becomes evident now that the aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh and Armenia has different layers and directions. In addition to the military planning which included the involvement of foreign terrorist fighters, military units of Turkey and of others, the Azerbaijan-Turkey tandem well in advance neutralized, if I may say so, the OSCE human rights watchdogs - the RFOM and ODIHR. This situation does not allow the Office of the Representative of the Freedom of Media to react to this gross violation of Freedom of the media, speech as well as OSCE commitments such as for example the 2018 Milan Ministerial decision on the safety of journalists.

And last but not least, the intimidation and harassment are the tactics employed by Azerbaijani and Turkish authorities. These methods were deployed for years to intimidate their domestic opponents, including journalists and civic activists. But another feature of Azerbaijan's and Turkey’s intimidation machinery is becoming more and more pronounced recently - the use of diaspora communities for silencing and intimidating the opponents of their regimes living in other countries. We have seen this employed against Kurdish communities, against Armenian communities. The last examples, an attack on peaceful Armenian protesters in France with hammers and knives, as well as actions of around 150 people wrapped up in Turkish and Azerbaijani flags who went out during the last night in the French city of Vienne, as police reported to, quote “in a punitive expedition in search of Armenians”, end of quote. This is totally unacceptable behaviour and shows once again the huge disparity of values.

Therefore, Azerbaijan is the last country that can speak about media freedom or intimidation of journalists. And obviously France does not need any guidance or assistance from Azerbaijan in ensuring the freedom of speech or protection of journalists.

Mr. Chairman,

Up until now, the Azerbaijani armed forces, in violation of all norms of international humanitarian law indiscriminately targeted more than 130 towns and villages, including densely populated ones with aerial, artillery, rocket strikes and with tank fire. And as I mentioned earlier, this has been confirmed by the President of that country. The only “inaccuracy” in that confession is the assurance that after October 9 Azerbaijan stopped attacking civilians.

As of October 28, 39 civilians were killed and 115 wounded, more than 11.000 immovable property objects were damaged. The schools, hospitals, water reservoirs and other critical infrastructure of Nagorno-Karabakh have been systematically bombed. This number does not include the possible casualties among civilians as result of today’s heavy bombardments.

This war is accompanied by horrendous crimes and atrocities perpetrated by the armed forces of Azerbaijan, including extrajudicial and summary executions, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners of war and ISIS-style beheadings.

Azerbaijani media published several videos and photos clearly showing war crimes committed against the Artsakh combatants, including mutilation of the dead bodies.

The Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have confirmed that the residential areas of Nagorno-Karabakh were bombed by cluster munitions, which is banned under international humanitarian law.

One civilian was killed and three injured (including one child) resulting from the deliberate targeting of the civilian population on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. Eight residential houses damaged, six out of eight burned out.

Azerbaijan obviously pursues the objective of creating unbearable living conditions for the people of Artsakh and forcing them out of their homeland. It is a persistent and meticulously planned programme of ethnic cleansing to force the entire population into displacement. Azerbaijan also targets the cultural and spiritual sites aimed to erase any trace of Armenian culture in Artsakh.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Genocide Watch have identified genocidal intent in the actions of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Mr. Chairman,

The attacks against civilian population and infrastructure, the use of banned weapons, degrading and inhumane treatment of prisoners of wars, as well as their execution and beheading, refusal to engage with the ICRC for the purposes of exchange of remains - these are the gross violations by Azerbaijan of all the norms of the international law, including international humanitarian law, for which Azerbaijan and its supporter Turkey should be held responsible under the existing international law.

Turkey, which became a state sponsoring terrorism and contributing to its proliferation to various regions of the world, with its pan-turkic concepts and dreams of revival of Ottoman Empire and continuously instigating Azerbaijan to continue its aggression, is the main challenge for restoration of peace, stability and security in the South Caucasus and the wider region.

So far neither calls for a dialogue nor attempts to settle differences around the negotiation table were not heeded or acted upon. Despite the calls of the international community and the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, Azerbaijan persistently rejects the implementation of the ceasefire agreements and the introduction of the verification mechanisms to maintain the ceasefire in the conflict zone.

These joint actions of Azerbaijan and Turkey demand an immediate and decisive response from the international community by way of imposing direct sanctions against these two countries with immediate effects, since only such coercive measures may induce the leaders of these two countries to revert from the path of war and conflict.

Azerbaijan and Turkey should be held responsible for unleashing the war, for thousands of casualties, for destruction and suffering they caused.

Failure of the international community to act immediately and swiftly, using the whole arsenal of measures and tools at its disposal to stop Turkey and Azerbaijan, will open the Pandora's box of violent conflicts without the restraining framework of international law and order.

We call on the OSCE participating States to recognise the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination and independent statehood, and consider this issue taking into account all the dire consequences of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh.

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