Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The brutal murder of two Azerbaijani civilians, two-year-old Zahra and her grandmother, by Armenian armed forces was once again brought to the attention of international community.

Azerbaijan’s Justice Minister Fikrat Mammadov informed participants of the meeting of Justice Ministers and heads of the Interior Ministries of the EU and the Eastern Partnership states in Tallinn about this Armenian provocation and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“The world should not remain indifferent to such an act of cruelty and inhumanity as the murder of two-year-old Zahra,” he said, reminding that she and her grandmother were killed on July 4 as a result of Armenian provocation in the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli region.

Mammadov highlighted that international organizations and countries of the world should make every effort to ensure the unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani lands in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council, as well as to ensure the return of Azerbaijani displaced persons to their homes in the occupied regions.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. within the OSCE Minsk Group have produced no results so far.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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