GUAM condemns Armenia’s missile attacks on Azerbaijani civilians

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) has condemned Armenia’s shelling of civilian targets in Azerbaijan’s’ Barda, Tartar and other cities and regions.

In a statement published on Twitter, the Secretary General of GUAM stressed that missile attacks to the cities and regions located far from the conflict zone, have caused numerous deaths and casualties among the civilian population, including children, women and elderly people, as well as distractions of the civilian infrastructure.

The statement voices serious concerns over indiscriminate use by Armenia of the ballistic missiles, cluster bombs and other weapons against the civilian population which is prohibited by the international law.

“While resolutely condemning these criminal acts of the Armenian armed forces, once again calling upon the international community to take effective measures to stop further war crimes conducted by the Armenian current leadership against the Republic of Azerbaijan,” the statement reads.

Additionally, Secretary General expressed deep condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims and to the people of Azerbaijan and wished full and speedy recovery to the injured.

Armenian armed forces launched a large-scale operation in the front-line zone on September 27 at 6 am, shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani army from large-calibre weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibres. Armenia has been targeting Azerbaijan’s densely populated areas and infrastructure projects.

Starting from September 27, Armenia launched a missile attacks on Azerbaijani cities and regions - Ganja, Barda, Mingachevir, Khizi, Absheron, Tartar, Gabala, Kurdamir, Siyazan, Goranboy, Aghdam among others.

On October 27, Armenia launched a missile attack at Barda region, as a result of which 5 civilians, including child, were killed and 13 civilians, including women and children, seriously wounded. In addition, on October 28, Armenian launched another missile attack at Barda region, as a result of which 21 civilians were killed and about 70 wounded.

It should be noted that the attack on civilians in Barda came a day after the US-brokered humanitarian truce became effective on October 26.

Additionally, Armenia targeted Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Novorossiysk pipelines and Oghuz- Gabala-Baku water pipeline.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.