Okeil: The international community must assume its responsibility to preserve international peace and security
Nourhan Mustafa: Azerbaijan’s actions flagrantly violate the International Humanitarian Law

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights condemns the renewed attacks by the Azerbaijani forces on the Karabakh region. The Azerbaijani forces have shelled Armenian posts with artillery and armored vehicles, causing a number of deaths and injuries among the Armenian army personnel and civilians, which violates the ceasefire agreement signed between the Azerbaijani and Armenian governments in Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces.

For his part, Ayman Okeil, an international human rights expert and President of Maat, condemned the ongoing attacks by the Azerbaijani armed forces on Armenian posts, which violate the rights of Armenian citizens and constitute an infringement on the country’s internationally recognized borders. Okeil called on the international community to urgently respond to these Azerbaijani attacks that undermine regional peace and security and to take effective steps aimed at preventing the attacks, in addition to calling for the unconditional full withdrawal of the armed forces of Azerbaijan from the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

In the same context, Nourhan Mustafa, Director of the International Humanitarian Law Unit at Maat, stated that these attacks, which took place in the Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces, caused a large number of soldiers being captured and subjected to inhumane treatment that contradicts the rules of international humanitarian law, specifically the Third Convention of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions on the protection of prisoners of war. Furthermore, a number of civilians have also fallen victim to these attacks in a flagrant violation of the human right to life and the Fourth Convention on the protection of civilians.

The Director of the International Humanitarian Law Unit called on the Azerbaijani government to commit to the rules of international law related to the protection of prisoners of war, the ceasefire agreement, the protection of civilians, in addition to establishing an urgent UN investigation committee to investigate the recent events in the Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces.