Situation in Artsakh - Urgent Message

On September 28, in the morning, Azerbaijan launched air strikes and shelling of the civilian population of Artsakh. Given the vast amount of misleading information and fake news regarding the current situation, we would like to share with you first-hand information about current events that may be useful for your internal dissemination.

• As a result of a large-scale attack along the entire line of contact of Artsakh launched by Azerbaijan on 27^th of September, as of Sep 28, 15:00, there are already two hundred wounded and fifty eight Armenians killed among the civilian and military population of Artsakh.
• The serious ceasefire violation by Azerbaijan is unprecedented in the size and scope of the military arsenal engaged. For the first time, since the ceasefire agreement in 1994, the capital of Artsakh, Stepanakert is being continuously shelled.
• The Turkish military experts are fighting side by side with Azerbaijan, who are using the Turkish weapons, including UAVs and warplanes. Meanwhile, Turkey provides full political propaganda and support to Azerbaijan at the highest level of its leadership.
• According to several sources, a batch of 4000 Syrian fighters of Turkish-backed factions have arrived in Azerbaijan to take part in military attacks.
• There are undeniable proofs that it is Azerbaijan who initiated this aggression. For years, Azerbaijan has consistently violated the 1994-1995 trilateral agreements on the establishment of ceasefire regime, which have no time limitation, has been rejecting the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship on introducing investigation mechanisms of ceasefire violations and the strengthening of the ceasefire monitoring, thus retaining the possibilities of the use of force and instigating a “blame game.” The fact that on September 25, Azerbaijan rejected the request of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office to monitor the line of contact is a case in point, which clearly reveals Azerbaijan's objectives to cover up its plans to unleash war.
• The statements of the international community, including the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and their states on the escalation of the situation along the line of contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan definitely demonstrates that the international community condemns the use of force, and the undermining regional peace and security. However, it is important to note that putting equality mark between aggressor and victim is unacceptable.
• Many international leaders, MPs and politicians have issued statements condemning the Azerbaijani aggression. For example, Antonio Guterres, various Republican and Democrat senators and congressmen, such as Frank Pallone, Bob Menendez, David Ciciliine, etc, members of European parliament, like Eva Kaili, Tonino Picula, Martin Sonneborn, Loucas Fourlas, deputies from National EU member state parliaments, like Geogres Dallemagne from Belgium and Jon Inarritu from Spain, etc have condemned the Azerbaijani aggression.

In times like this, when thousands of innocent, civilian human lives are in danger, the silence or ‘politically correct’ statements of the international community allow the continuation of devastating and aggressive attacks of dictators like Aliyev and Erdogan. The Azerbaijani regime is committing grave violations of international humanitarian law as well as war crimes by shelling civilians and their properties.

This is why we ask you to use your platforms to speak up about the injustice and slaughter taking place in Artsakh, to demand condemnation of these belligerent displays of Azeri and Turkish aggression from your organizations and to help us hold the aggressors accountable for their actions.

* For more information and live updates, please follow the available English-language independent news agencies, along with the government officials’ accounts:

EVN REPORT (website, Facebook, Twitter)
Civilnet (website)
Radio Free – Azatutyun Armenia (Website)