More than 520 NGOs of Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia present a joint appeal to the European Parliament

Communiqué de l’EuFoA - European Friends of Armenia

On 11 April 2016 civil society representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia made a joint appeal to the European Parliament, in which they expressed their position on the large-scale military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan against Karabakh and Armenia. The joint appeal was signed by more than 520 representatives of non-governmental organizations, mass-media who worked on the Line of Contact during the days of military actions, as well as organizations representing the interests of national minorities in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.

The document draws the attention of the European parliament to the gross violations of international conventions and commitments by Azerbaijan. The text also notes that "From the very beginning of the Azerbaijani offensive civilian infrastructures and civilian population, including children and the elderly have become intentional and indiscriminate targets of their action", in breach of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977, 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The organizations of Karabakhi and Armenian civil society, mass media and national minorities who signed the joint appeal, including the Armenian National Platform of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (215 NGOs) belong to different socio-political camps. They demonstrated unprecedented unity in this matter, announcing their full support and indicating the importance of this initiative.

They called the European Parliament to:

• strongly condemn the atrocities and war crimes, committed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh and its civilian population;

• strongly condemn calls from Turkey and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to Azerbaijan to continue the military aggression against Nagorno Karabakh;

• reiterate that there is no other solution to this conflict than by peaceful negotiations;

• urge the OSCE Minsk Group to restore the status of Nagorno Karabakh as a full-fledged party to the peace negotiations.

European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) is grateful for having the opportunity to participate in this initiative and to disseminate this petition among Members of the European Parliament ahead of the debate on the situation in Nagorno Karabakh scheduled for 12 April.