YEREVAN, February 26. /ARKA/. Azerbaijan has unleashed two large-scale wars against the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination resulting in tens of thousands of casualties, spokeswoman for Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan said today in response to a request to comment on the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s statement on the events that had occurred near Aghdam in 1992, which comprised traditional accusations against Armenia.
She said Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the losses and deprivations of the people of the region for three decades.
‘During the two wars unleashed against the people of Artsakh as well as the period preceding it, Azerbaijani side resorted to mass atrocities, including ethnic cleansing and war crimes. The murders of the Armenian civilians by Azerbaijani soldiers in the territories of the Hadrut region of Artsakh fallen under its control during the recent war have been described as war crimes by the respective international bodies, specifically the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,’ she said.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by a successful referendum.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions were under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons.
After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the parties stopped at where they were at that time.
The town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Karabakh and adjacent regions, prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons and bodies of the dead are being exchanged.–0-