On December 13, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Artsakh David Babayan sent a letter to Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić related to Azerbaijan’s blockage of the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia, resulting in a humanitarian disaster in Artsakh, the Ministry press office reports.
The letter reads that Azerbaijan has violated the fundamental rights of some 120,000 individuals residing in Nagorno Karabagh, among them children, elderly, persons with disabilities, and women.
The document stresses that Azerbaijan fails to respect the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights, whose protection also extends to those living in conflict areas, guarantees protection of the right to live, right to freedom of movement and right to security, among others.
In this context, it calls to:
- swiftly and decisively employ the full arsenal of Council of Europe’s instruments to urgently lift Azerbaijan’s illegal and inhuman blockade of Nagorno Karabagh’s population;
- dispatch an urgent Council of Europe monitoring mission to the area to prevent further violations of the Convention;
- suspend Azerbaijan’s rights of representation in the organization, due to Azerbaijan’s serious violation of Article 3 of the Statute of Council of Europe.
Copies of the letter were also sent to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
