Azerbaijan violated a key European convention by pardoning, rewarding and glorifying an Azerbaijani army officer who hacked to death a sleeping Armenian colleague in 2004, Member of the House of Lords, Baroness Caroline Cox said in a letter to Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to the UK Tahir Taghizade.
She reminded that according to a recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, Baku’s actions amounted to the “approval” and “endorsement” of the “very serious ethnically-based crime.”
“Over a four-day period in April 2016, Azerbaijani forces launched an offensive into the territories controlled by Armenian forces in Nagorno Karabakh, resulting in many deaths,” Baroness Cox said.
Furthermore, she added, in July this year Azerbaijan deployed artillery batteries close to civilian populations in Tavush, with reports that the Azerbaijani military opened fire in the direction of a face mask production factory, as well as a kindergarten in the village of Aygepar.
Also, in July, pro-war demonstrations were held in Baku, during which thousands of protesters demanded from the Azerbaijani government to dully deploy the army, chanting “Death to Armenians,” with some even entering the national parliament.
Below is the full text of the letter:
