Document on Shusha's occupation distributed in PACE

"The 15th anniversary of Shusha's invasion is on May 8. We gave information about killing, wounding of hundreds of civilians, capturing and missing about 60 civilians during the invasion of Shusha by Armenian forces. There are women and children among the dead and wounded. Most of them have not been released yet, about 22,000 people have become displaced persons. They have been living as IDPs in different parts of Azerbaijan, their human rights are violated," she said.

Ganira Pashayeva said the list of cultural-historical monuments destroyed during the invasion of Shusha was attached to the document.

"The document shows that 279 religious, historical and cultural monuments of Azerbaijan, including Khan cave and Gakhal cave are under occupation. Most of them have been destroyed, and the process continues. Armenian policy aims at destroying Azerbaijan's cultural, historical and religious monuments. Taking all this into account, we have raised the issue at the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. PACE has resolution #1416 on Nagorno Karabakh and the resolution shows that Armenians have to withdraw from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including Shusha. We ask them: "How will the Committee of Ministers assess ignoring of resolution #1416?" The second question is "What steps can the Committee of Ministers take to prevent destroying of Azerbaijan's cultural, religious and historical monuments?"

"We also asked what means of influence they will use against Armenia for implementation of resolution #1416," she said.

The document has already been published and distributed in PACE. It is to be debated at the meeting of the COE Committee of Ministers soon. APA