Dozens of Armenian POWs are still held in Baku prisons. Arman Yeghoyan at the Francophonie Regional Conference
20:56, 4 April, 2022
YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS. The Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of Armenia on European Integration Arman Yeghoyan raised the issues related to the security and humanitarian crisis in Armenia and Artsakh at the Conference of the Heads of the European Region Delegations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie.
“On September 27, 2020, when the world was battling the COVID-19 pandemic, Azerbaijan, with the help of its allies and mercenaries, launched a large-scale offensive against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. And despite some humanitarian organizations, heads of a number of states very quickly gave an accurate assessment of what was happening, it seems that was not enough. One of the first to respond to the situation was French President Emmanuel Macron, who openly stated that Azerbaijan had transferred jihadist groups from Syria to Nagorno-Karabakh to fight against Armenians. (Quote) "According to our reliable information, 300 militants arrived in Baku from Syria via Gaziantep. They are known and identified, they originate from the jihadist groups operating in the Aleppo region." Human Rights Watch has confirmed that Azerbaijan used cluster bombs during the war." Genocide Watch warned that Azerbaijan intends to annihilate the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh. (Quote) "Azerbaijan has invaded the territory of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic or Artsakh, with the aim of annihilating the Armenian presence in the occupied territories." Recently, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno Karabakh in the territories that have passed under the control of Azerbaijan," Arman Yeghoyan said, as reported by Armenpress.
He reminded that in a flagrant violation of international law, Azerbaijan targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, bombed cities, used phosphorous bombs, and brutally executed the elderly who had not left their homes before the Azerbaijani advance. Arman Yeghoyan stressed that dozens of Armenian prisoners of war are still being held in Baku prisons, whom Azerbaijan refuses to return.
"And in these difficult days, the Armenian people, who had lived for thousands of years in their homeland, Nagorno Karabakh, did not receive the same support from the international community. Why? The question here was geopolitics or values? Even if we assume that the reason was geopolitics, even in that case, was the war in Nagorno Karabakh not connected in some way or another with what is happening in Ukraine today? I leave this as an open question that you can ponder over. And what do you think, how can any state, any government, expel any population from its hometown and village, what European state can do such a thing without receiving a European response? Nobody. But why was this possible in Nagorno Karabakh? This is another question that I leave open and suggest thinking about it”, Arman Yeghoyan concluded.