On October 10, 2020 after intense eleven-hour closed door negotiations in Moscow between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia a humanitarian truce was announced. It was agreed to start on October 10 at 12PM GMT+4 time to collect the corpses and exchange the captive soldiers from Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, according to reports of the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan there have been a number of ceasefire violations. 

On October 11, 2020 as a result of a night attack on Ganja city 10 died and 34 people were injured. Exact coordinates of the attack - 40.701093° 46.367114°. The aftermath of the shelling can be seen at these links 1​, 2​, 3​, 4​, 5​, 6​, 7​, 8​, 9. The buildings in parallel streets have also been heavily damaged. During the attack a 9th century mosque complex and a 19th century Ortodox church were also damaged. The first attack on Ganja was a week ago when instead of an alleged target - a 'military' airport (in reality, Ganja International Airport), Armenian missiles landed in historical city center (sources 1 and 2) and bazaar (video 1 and 2) killing 1 and injuring 32 civilians. It is worth noting that Ganja (>60 km away from the conflict zone) is the second largest city of Azerbaijan and home of many important cultural figures, including 12th century female poet Makhsati Ganjavi and 12th century poet and philosopher Nizami Ganjavi whose mausoleum as well as other 195 buildings of cultural and historical significance are under constant risk. The fact that Armenian long-distance missiles land on residential areas and destroy architectural heritage of Azerbaijan's town outside the conflict zone is unacceptable brutality. 

Even a war has certain ‘rules of the game’ and countries that consider themselves members of the international community and sign international treaties acknowledge the prevalence of international law. Shelling cities dozens kilometers away from the active conflict zone and attacking densely populated residential areas at night where no legitimate military targets are is a war crime. Attacks on the country's key infrastructure like the Mingachevir hydroelectric station (almost 200 km away from the war zone), the main supplier of electricity in Azerbaijan, is a war crime. Destruction of Mingachevir reservoir and the dam will have serious consequences to the functioning of Azerbaijan’s economy and its population of 10 million people. The entire area of Arran as well as Nagorno-Karabakh territory up to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan (located 320 km away) will be flooded. If the Baku population is included, we are talking about millions of people being affected by this catastrophe. Largest part of the farmlands as well as historical and cultural sites are located in this area. There will also be nationwide blackouts. As a result of continuous shelling of Terter for the past two weeks the city is almost non-existent and attacks continued to this date. The shelling also targeted housing units built for Azerbaijani IDPs, the survivors of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in the 1990s. Other Azerbaijani cities and villages in Goranboy, Aghdam, Agjdabedi, Fizuli regions are under continuous attacks.  

All these disrespectful and carefree actions of Armenian government result in a big number of casualties among the civil population of Azerbaijan - since September 27, as many as 41 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and 207 injured, 1185 private houses, 57 residential and commercial buildings, and 149 public buildings have also been destroyed or damaged (as of October 13, 2020 statistics).

These attacks violate the Geneva Conventions of 1949. They go against any humanistic or religious values. Armenian government - its political and military elite - must be held responsible for such aggression against the civilian population of Azerbaijan. The attacks on Azerbaijani civil population aim to cause fear and distress for the overall morale to collapse. Menaces to execute a plan to attack counter-air defense and then to target cities of Azerbaijan to start panic have been repeatedly expressed via Armenian and Russian media. Now, most of them are edited or deleted. However, the part of an interview to Russian’s VESTI (Rossiya 1 aired at 20:00 news on October 5, 2020) by Armenian prime minister's military adviser Vagharshak Harutyunyan confirmed the terroristic nature of the attacks. In later airing of the interview this part was cut and only remains in social media and participatory journalist Telegram channels. What is more appalling is that some news resources even claim that Azerbaijan has orchestrated the death of its own civilians.

It is important to remember that Azerbaijani soldiers fight on internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan Republic against military targets of Armenian army and illegal militants of unrecognised ‘republic of Artsakh’ (aka. Nagorno-Karabakh) that have been occupying 20% of Azerbaijani lands for almost three decades. Since September 27, 2020 Republic of Azerbaijan military actions aim at de-occupation of the territories that were ethnically cleansed from Azerbaijani population: over 600,000 of IDPs in the 1990s left those lands which have been used since then as the deserted ‘buffer zone’ around Nagorno-Karabakh. Its area is only 4% of the occupied territories and currently hosts ca. 140,000 Armenian inhabitants. As a result of the Armenian aggression, 1 in 10 citizens of Azerbaijan is an IDP or a refugee, in total 1 million people. The rights of these people are systematically ignored and neglected by Armenian political and military elite who only speak about the lives and rights of current population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Neutrality/silence of the international community or victimisation of aggressors allow continuation of this abusive behaviour. Azerbaijan exercises its inherent right of self-defence under Art 51 of the UN Charter. UN Security Council Resolutions 822​, 853​, 874 and 884 that demanded immediate withdrawal of Armenian military forces from these territories have been ignored for 27 years. The fact that international laws do not work for Armenia damage the reputation of the UN and its structures not only in the eyes of Azerbaijani citizens but anyone who wants peace and stability in the South Caucasus. We believe that the peace can be reached in mutually respectful and trustful dialogue, but when one side is not acting in bona fide there has to be international punishment mechanisms in place. 

We regret that civilians from both sides are the victims of the conflict. It is painful to see that children are suffering. Innocent people die on both sides and there has to be an end: Armenian government's anti-humanistic and malicious behaviour goes against its own people. The positions of the national army of Armenia and illegal armed formations on internationally recognised territories of Republic of Azerbaijan are in close proximity or inside the cities where civilians still remain. This is a war crime. Using civilians as the live shield is disgraceful. Should Azerbaijan purposefully attack cities in Nagorno-Karabakh as Armenian officials and diaspora claim, the civilian casualties of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh would be much higher than the casualties of Azerbaijani side outside the active conflict zone! Armenian government shall accept Azerbaijan’s proposal to organise a humanitarian corridor for the safe evacuation of the people from the conflict zone. 

With this collective letter, we call international community to value Azerbaijani lives and the rights to live in their ancestors' lands equally to those aspirations of Armenian civilians. We want Armenia to respect international laws and the conventions that they sign. We want safety for the civilians. There is, however, a difference between those who wilfully choose to remain in the conflict zone, risk their own and the lives of their beloved ones knowingly. Those Azerbaijani civilians who were attacked at night during the humanitarian truce outside the conflict zone did not see it coming. They are the innocent victims of Armenian government's purposeful attacks. The security of the South Caucasus region is once again at risk and the world community must act in respect of international laws and welfare of the civilians by demanding enforcement of four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions as well as strict control of humanitarian aid and respect of Geneva Conventions. Failure to do so now will give precedents for the future malicious behaviour in any part of the world!