Karabakh expects int'l community's "concrete political steps"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nagorno-Karabakh expects the international community to take concrete political steps to guarantee the realization by its people of their collective human rights and freedoms, the country's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 2 – the sixth anniversary of the Four Day War.

Six years ago this day, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive across the entire line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). Clashes that began in the wee hours of April 2 in 2016 lasted four days and were later dubbed the Four-Day War or the April War.

"The April 2016 aggression became a touchstone, among other things, to test the reaction of the international community to the violation of the UN Charter and international obligations by Azerbaijan. The fact that these illegal actions did not entail any serious political and legal consequences for Baku only strengthened the confidence of the Azerbaijani authorities in the permissiveness and the prevalence of force over international law," the Karabakh Foreign Ministry said.

"Both the April 2016 war and the subsequent 44-day aggression of Azerbaijan in 2020, despite their local nature, became a real test for the entire system of international relations. Impunity for unleashing aggressive wars has led to the undermining of such fundamental principles of international law as non-use of force, peaceful settlement of disputes, conscientious fulfillment of international obligations, etc.

"Taking into account that the Azerbaijani authorities refuse to negotiate for a peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabagh conflict, continue to violate their obligations and do not halt the aggressive actions, we expect the international community to take concrete political steps to guarantee the realization by the people of Artsakh of their collective human rights and freedoms, without any restrictions."