Armenia used banned weapons against Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry will introduce military attaches of foreign embassies accredited in Azerbaijan to the fact of usage of banned incendiary weapons by Armenia against the Azerbaijani population, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmet Hajiyev said, Trend reports.

Hajiyev said that the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan will jointly organize a trip of foreign military attaches to Terter’s Eskipara village, where in the course of operations Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) discovered facts proving the use of incendiary weapons by Armenian armed forces.

These munitions are prohibited by international conventions.

The spokesperson added that foreign military attaches are going to witness facts of the use of incendiary weapons by Armenians, and details of the facts will then be analyzed by ANAMA experts. 

As a historian and political analyst, a candidate of historical sciences Oleg Kuznetsov recalled in an interview to Vestnik Kavkaza, the use of chemical weapons violates international agreements, such as Protocol III on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW or CCWC), concluded at Geneva on October 10th, 1980.

"The point of these international legal acts lies in the fact that they limit the use of chemical weapons, first of all, against the civilian infrastructure objects and the populated areas. If such incidents are confirmed, it is considered to be a war crime, and their investigation is within the competence of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, one of the UN's departments. The decision of this organization is submitted to authorized subcommittees in the UN Security Council. Based on obtained information, they submit them to the session of the UN Security Council, which either adopts a resolution in accordance with these facts or rejects it. This is the legal aspect of this issue," the expert said.

Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.