YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan conducted large scale military operations in the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact in the beginning of April and tried to infiltrate the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. During the 4 days of fierce fighting the Defense Army of Nagorno Karabakh succeeded in pushing back the adversary. On April 5 a ceasefire agreement has been reached in Moscow. During the 4 days of battles, Azerbaijan violated every all international humanitarian norms, targeted civilians, bombarded peaceful settlements and committed war crimes. Azerbaijan bombarded the Martakert and Martuni cities, as a result of which a child was killed. 3 elderly people were violently and brutally murdered in Talish village by Azerbaijani soldiers. During the military operations, Azerbaijan used banned weapons against Nagorno Karabakh, and there are grounds to believe that Azerbaijan used Islamist merceneries. The Azerbaijani side even mutilated and vandalized the corpses of Armenian soldiers, which is a clear display of violations of international humanitarian norms. “Armenpress” conducted an interview with Yuri Hayrapetyan, Ombudsman of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, regarding the measures that are being taken in order to bring Azerbaijan to responsibility in international organizations for its heinous and severe crimes.

-Mr. Hayrapetyan, recently Azerbaijan began large scale military offensive operations in the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact, during which Azerbaijan committed war crimes, targeted civilian populations, murdered peaceful civilians and mutilated the corpses of killed Armenian soldiers. What steps are being made for bringing Azerbaijan to responsibility for these heinous crimes in international bodies and tribunals?

- Let me start by saying that I have applied to the UN Human Rights Commissioner, the European Council Human Rights Commissioner as well as a number of international NGOs in the sphere of human rights. I also applied to the European Ombudsman Institute. I am a member of this Institute and so is the Azerbaijani Ombudsman. It is an international NGO, which unifies all Ombudsmen and people of European countries who are involved in human rights. It is a very prestigious organization which works directly with the European Union and the Council of Europe. Generally, I think that during the recent operations, the target of Azerbaijan was the peaceful civilian population. By this, their goal was to break us, to show that it can violate and ignore every rule of the civilized world and target civilians.

Azerbaijan openly targeted and bombarded a number of civilian settlements and cities, Martuni, Martakert, Hadrut, Mataghis and Talish. This is an obvious violation of the Geneva Convention and is considered a war crime. The Geneva Convention prohibits any operations against civilians or civilian settlements. We know that as a result of the Azerbaijani operations homes were destructed, schools damaged, a child was killed, many other children wounded.

Azerbaijani soldiers brutally murdered three elderly civilians and mutilated their bodies.

A criminal case has been filed by the Artsakh Prosecutor’s Office and Investigative Agencies regarding the Azerbaijani atrocities. This will allow us to gather as many facts as possible, which will prove that Azerbaijan committed war crimes. Forensic examinations and investigations are underway, the results of which will be proofs. We will apply to international tribunals to bring Azerbaijan to responsibility. As to which specific court we will apply, we think this case has to be filed to the International Criminal Court.

You can read the full interview in Armenian