Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked attack on the civilian population of Artsakh, reaching far beyond the border areas, into the capital city of Stepanakert, shelling residential areas, schools, and hospitals, and immediately killing a woman and a child. More deaths have been reported since the first strikes on Sunday morning.
This attack follows the ongoing and constant aggression from Azerbaijan, which is backed with weapons from Turkey, mercenaries armed and trained by Turkish forces, and funding and equipment from multi-national public and private supporters with vested financial and oil interests in the region.
In the past, weak admonishments without real consequences have served only as permission for Azerbaijan to engage in further aggression. Now is the time to bring to justice those responsible for aggression and war crimes. Specifically, the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is personally responsible for war crimes by authorizing this unprovoked aggression and causing civilian deaths and casualties.
Americans for Artsakh supports U.S. Congress members’ calls for investigations into the source of this and other terrorist attacks and incursions in the region, and for the U.S. to cease military assistance to Azerbaijan until it abides by the conditions of the Minsk Group, specifically cessation of armed conflict. We further urge the United States to join its Minsk Group co-chairs, France and Russia, calling for an immediate ceasefire and a halt to further casualties.
Americans for Artsakh calls on Azerbaijan to cease hostilities, return to the line of contact held before the incursion, and commit to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
