By refusing to issue hand over maps of minefields, Armenia is violating the agreements of the trilateral statement dated Nov. 9 last year, Irina Tsukerman, a US-based human rights lawyer and national security analyst, told Report.
"The very fact of mining a residential area and refusal to cooperate in the clearance of these lands is a violation of agreements from a legal, political and moral point of view," said Tsukerman.
"The deliberate use of prohibited methods, such as mines against civilians, is in any case a violation of international law. Terrorist methods against civilians are prohibited in any form. Armenia doesn’t have to actively cooperate as a participant in mine clearance operations, but has no right to conduct actions that represent threat to the life of civilians. Since these territories were occupied by Armenia and were originally inhabited by civilians, their status hasn’t changed after the liberation," the expert noted.
She said that from a political point of view, the actions, or more precisely, the inaction of Armenia is a violation of the trilateral statement of Nov. 9, as this agreement stipulated the obligation to withdraw all Armenian military forces from the territories of Azerbaijan.
"Leaving mines there, on which civilians of Azerbaijan and military personnel continue to be blown up, contradicts the agreement and is essentially a continuation of hostilities after their formal end. From a moral point of view, it is simply shameful to complicate life and create danger for the lives of civilians.
Such a mean attitude towards military defeat, revenge for losses through blowing up Azerbaijani citizens is a nature of cowards and weaklings, and not at all the brave men that the Armenian military are trying to present themselves to the whole world. Officials and military personnel who participate in such methods should be held accountable for this," concluded Tsukerman.