STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. The Human Rights Defender of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Gegham Stepanyan says their monitoring shows that the terrorist actions by the Azerbaijani military aimed against the civilian population of Artsakh are coordinated and consistent in nature.

Stepanyan told ARMENPRESS that it is no coincidence that the Azerbaijani encroachments get intensified especially during agricultural work and harvest period, and the Azerbaijani military’s objective is to disrupt normal course of life and terrorize the peaceful population of Nagorno Karabakh, including the farmers.

“The Azerbaijani authorities and their president are trying to misrepresent these incidents not as widespread violations of the ceasefire but as rare cases in various areas. But only the fact that in November of 2022 alone there’ve already been 11 cases when the Azerbaijani side obstructed and stopped agricultural works with direct gunfire shows that these cases aren’t rare and are components of a consistent and coordinated policy,” Stepanyan said. The Ombudsman added that the Azerbaijani military is shooting to hinder the farmers from cultivating the land, the main source of income for the villagers.

“If a person is unable to have income, they will sooner or later decide to leave their settlement. And this is Azerbaijan’s main goal. If we add on this the Azerbaijani encroachments against the vulnerability of Artsakh’s infrastructures, I mean the connection disruptions and gas supply issues in March of 2022, then this all speaks about the Azerbaijani policy seeking to achieve an exodus of Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh,” Stepanyan said.

Stepanyan’s office is now collecting facts to prepare reports. These reports are indeed primary source and become materials for different international actors, he said.

Stepanyan said that various international officials are reading his reports and he saw it as recently as at the discussions at the European Parliament, when his office had published a report on human rights violations by Azerbaijan on the escalation and the incidents at Lachin Corridor. “During the meetings and discussions I got convinced that the respective persons are truly reading these reports and are entirely informed on the situation.”

Aside from the reports, statements on every single incident are sent to the OSCE MG Co-Chairmanship and various international human rights organizations.

Stepanyan says that the main function of his office in this situation is to notify international actors and to call for a consistent demand for international organizations to get involved and suppress the Azerbaijani aggressive conduct.

“It wouldn’t be correct to say that we are happy with the international reaction because indeed the situation requires more practical steps and more effective actions, but on the other hand we understand that we don’t have the right to miss this front and we must maximally actively and effective continue this work, which we have done during the war and over the course of these two years since the ceasefire was signed,” the Ombudsman said.

Out of the hundreds of violations by Azerbaijan, the Artsakh Human Rights Defender’s Office and local law enforcement agencies mostly register only the kind of ceasefire breach incidents which have led to material or human damages.

“We haven’t summed up the data of 2022 yet, but during the two years, until November 13th of this year, there’ve been 121 recorded cases when Azerbaijani military gunfire at peaceful population of Artsakh led to human losses, bodily injuries or material damages. 18 people were killed from this, including three civilians. Two of them were killed while farming, while the other one was killed while repairing water supply pipes, an essential work. Another 132 people survived attempted murder by the Azerbaijani military (54 civilians and 78 military), 67 others suffered gunshot wounds or were physically assaulted (16 civilians). There are cases when civilians suffered various-degree injuries after being physically attacked. Particularly, we recorded 8 cases when civilians accidentally crossed into Azerbaijani-controlled territory after being lost, and after being returned at the mediation of Russian peacekeepers, medical examination showed that they’ve been beaten and tortured,” the Ombudsman said.

During the past two years, the Azerbaijani military targeted 13 civilian homes, 8 farming equipment, 22 vehicles, 16 other properties were damaged or destroyed. The Azerbaijani troops even stole livestock from farmers in Nagorno Karabakh.

Stepanyan says the cases show that Azerbaijan is exploiting the geopolitical situation, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in an attempt to destabilize the situation around Nagorno Karabakh.

“Their impunity is amplified by the fact that there is no clearly defined mandate for the peacekeepers, in terms of what response there should be when the Azerbaijani side is resorting to the use of force. We’ve raised this issue in our report on the incidents in August, to make the issue of the mandate of the peacekeepers a topic of discussion, because without a clear mechanism for investigating the incidents and bringing to account the criminals it is impossible to rule out the repetition of such cases in the future,” Stepanyan said.

When asked about resumption of agricultural works after the incidents, Stepanyan attached importance to the contribution and role of the Russian peacekeepers.

“Today we have around 30 settlements which have appeared very close to the line of contact after the war, ranging from 150 meters to 2 kilometers. The presence of peacekeepers in these areas allows people to farm. But regrettably there’ve been cases when the ceasefire violations happened in presence of the peacekeepers, like the case when a farmer was killed in his tractor in Martakert. Certainly, the presence of peacekeepers has a suppressive impact, but I have to say again that the Azerbaijani side must be held accountable for the incidents and crimes, without which the incidents will be repeated in the atmosphere of impunity,” Stepanyan said.

Van Novikov