Statement by the Human Rights Association of Nagorno-Karabakh Refugees

“On September 27, 2020, ignoring UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s call of March 23, 2020, during the 75th session of the UN General Assembly to declare a global ceasefire to combat COVID-19, as well as a similar resolution adopted in June with the same spirit, Azerbaijan launched long-prepared and large-scale military operations against Artsakh. The outbreak of war was also a clear violation of Article 33 of the UN Charter adopted in San Francisco in 1945.
In reality, the war had begun 100 years earlier, in 1920, when Caucasian Tatars, with the help of their ethnic allies—the Ottoman Turks, who had just carried out the Armenian Genocide—resumed new pressures and violence against Armenians.
In an attempt to justify its unlawful policy of war, Azerbaijan tried to portray it as a legitimate action to restore its territorial integrity. In just 44 days, more than 5,000 Armenian soldiers were killed, while the civilian population also suffered casualties—over 200 lives lost.
After the war, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev repeatedly declared publicly that the war had been launched in order to “settle the conflict.” The “logical” continuation of this assertion was not long in coming: following the war, starting from 2021, the official speeches of the Azerbaijani President consistently denied the existence of “Nagorno-Karabakh” as a political entity, as well as the very fact of the conflict.
As for the conduct of the war itself, from the very beginning the Azerbaijani armed forces deliberately targeted the Armenian cultural heritage of Artsakh, thereby violating numerous international norms that prohibit attacks on cultural property during armed conflict. Throughout the 44 days, Azerbaijan used internationally banned cluster munitions, bombs, rockets, and other weapons to bombard residential areas and civilian infrastructure in cities and towns such as Shushi, Martakert, Martuni, and Hadrut. Kindergartens, schools, monasteries, and churches were deliberately hit, with the aim of demoralizing the Armenian people during the fighting and ultimately destroying their physical and cultural existence. Museums and valuable collections were damaged, numerous khachkars (cross-stones), monuments, and cultural sites were destroyed or struck by missiles. Among them were the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi, the Tigranakert archaeological site, Shushi’s House of Culture, Stepanakert’s music school, and other cultural institutions.
The 2020 war also caused the forced displacement of Artsakh Armenians. As a result of Azerbaijan’s war crimes, as well as the ensuing socio-economic and humanitarian crisis, more than 40,000 people were displaced from Shushi, Hadrut, Shahumyan, Kashatagh districts, and from certain villages of Martakert and Askeran districts. In addition, residents were displaced from other affected settlements, including Stepanakert, Askeran, and Martuni. Consequently, about 113 out of Artsakh’s 228 communities were entirely depopulated.
The war was the beginning of the calamities the Armenian people were forced to endure. It continued with the 10-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor and in 2023 culminated in the complete ethnic cleansing of Artsakh.
The Human Rights Association of Nagorno-Karabakh Refugees urges international organizations to remain consistent in documenting and condemning grave crimes against humanity. Otherwise, such crimes only encourage new atrocities, committed in an atmosphere of impunity that undermines regional stability.”