We are urging that the New Zealand Government urgently addresses and condemns Azerbaijan’s large-scale air and artillery strikes against civilian targets in the Armenian Republic of Artsakh, which began early on Sunday 27 September in flagrant breach of the 1994 ceasefire agreement. New Zealand citizens along with the world are witnessing the human rights violations being committed by Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey against the innocent civilians of the Republics of Artsakh.

Azerbaijan has employed several forms of artillery at their disposal to target both civilian and military targets on the entire length of the Artsakh border, including the capital city Stepanakert,  which has been subjected to the criminal use of cluster munitions. So far, Baku’s aggressive campaign has resulted in the tragic deaths of children and mothers, as well as 280 Armenian soldiers while there are thousands amongst the wounded. Many hundreds of Azerbaijani soldiers have also given their lives for this senseless aggression of their authoritarian leader. 

Such attacks, assisted by a Turkey-funded air battalion and Islamist jihadist mercenaries from the Middle East, are a continuation of the war-mongering policies of the fundamentalist dictatorship of Azerbaijan, who continues to violate international law and has also openly rejected the United Nations Secretary General's plea for a global ceasefire during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in early July that peaceful negotiations are “meaningless”. It is also in flagrant violation of the first of three agreed fundamental three equal principles of the UN-sanctioned Minsk Group peace process of i) the non-use of force; ii) territorial integrity and iii) the right to self-determination. 

We, the citizens of New Zealand, demand an urgent condemnation of Azerbaijan and Turkey from the New Zealand Government.