The Armenian ombudsman’s round-the-clock surveys show that the numerous Azerbaijani armed attacks on Artsakh and Armenia since 27 September do not differentiate between military facilities and civilian settlements, and in many cases directly target the civilian population.

We learn about this from the press release of the Public Relations Department of the Human Rights Defender’s Office.

Prohibited weapons kill or injure civilians. As the Artsakh Human Rights Defender regularly informs me, the latter are in different cities and villages of Artsakh, but due to the ongoing aggressive attacks, the medical staff is not able to fully reach those places and provide the necessary assistance to the people.

According to my Artsakh counterpart, the Azerbaijani armed forces carried out attacks in Artsakh on an ambulance and a hospital, where, according to official data, there were also civilians. It is regularly reported about casualties among the military.

My urgent consultations with the competent bodies of Armenia took place yesterday, and the Artsakh Human Rights Defender did the same in Artsakh. In both cases, strong assurances have been received that both Armenia and Artsakh are ready to exchange corpses and captives, as they consider the lack of such a humanitarian opportunity inadmissible. Research shows that this readiness is always expressed publicly in Armenia and Artsakh.

The current situation is a continuing gross violation of international law, in particular the fundamental requirements of international humanitarian law enshrined in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and operating at the customary level. This not only violates the rights of the injured civilians, but also insults the bodies of the killed, inhuman treatment of their close relatives.

I join the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) ICRC Regional Director on 13 October in public concern over the lack of a humanitarian ceasefire and the lack of conditions for carrying out their humanitarian mission. A few days ago, I also spoke with Claire Meytraud, the head of the ICRC Armenia office, about all these issues.

It is necessary to stop this already inhuman treatment as soon as possible, and to provide the ICRC with an opportunity to carry out its humanitarian mission on all sides. At the same time, a real opportunity should be provided for such a mission, not a formal one.