Azernews.Az

By Sabina Mammadli

Dutch ambassador to Baku Pauline Eizema was summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry over the November 23 letter by Netherlands’ Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra to the parliament, alleging that the Azerbaijani army had committed war crimes.

The ministry told the ambassador that the Armenian army has committed numerous murders of Azerbaijani servicemen and civilians since the first Karabakh war.

“Thus, only 613 civilians were killed brutally in Khojaly on February 26, 1992, in just one night, and around 4,000 Azerbaijanis went missing during the war. In October 2020 [during the second Karabakh War], Armenia subjected Azerbaijan's Ganja, Barda, and Mingachevir cities to missile strikes, thereby committing another crime against humanity,” the ministry said.

Further, the ambassador was told that the Armenia-planted landmines on Azerbaijan's liberated lands keep posing a serious threat to the lives of people and that nearly 268 Azerbaijani citizens died in mine blasts following the 2020 second Karabakh War.

The ministry added that the discovery of Armenia-made landmines in Azerbaijan's territory is a vivid example of Armenia's ongoing war crimes against Azerbaijanis.

It was emphasized that the Armenian government hadn't yet taken any practical measures to bring the crime perpetrators to justice. The need for an international assessment of these crimes was also stressed.

Moreover, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan remains committed to its international obligations and investigates claims for criminal acts that allegedly took place during military operations. On September 17, 2022, the Military Prosecutor's Office announced the launch of an all-inclusive investigation to determine the authenticity of the relevant videos spread on social media platforms.

In turn, the ambassador stated that she would submit the Azerbaijani ministry's appeal to the relevant authorities of the Netherlands.

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