Aliyev bans and complains at the same time: Why don’t international human rights defenders visit Azerbaijan?

Quoting the words of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, The Russian website vz.ru (Vzglyad), writes that Azerbaijan does not use cluster munitions in Artsakh.

The website presents an excerpt from Aliyev’s interview with the German ARD (First German TV Channel), in which in response to the question why the Azerbaijani side uses rockets with cluster warheads, as evidenced by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the President of Azerbaijan answers: “We do not use those weapons, we just defend ourselves. We have invited Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Unfortunately, those organizations present only Armenia’s perspective of the events. They are biased.”Despite irrefutable evidence, Aliyev consistently denies use of banned weapons.

The Fact Investigation Platform has been in Artsakh since the very first days of the hostilities, presenting evidence of the use of banned cluster bombs by Azerbaijan in different cities of Artsakh.

Evidence we have gathered about the use of banned weapons has also been presented to the international media and organizations, including Human Rights Watch, which published a report based on that evidence and photos, documenting the use of cluster weapons by Azerbaijan.

As for Aliyev’s claim that they invited Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, but these organizations cover the events only as Armenia sees them, and are biased, it is a lie because HRW not only presented evidence from Artsakh, but also explained why they did not visit Azerbaijan before that.“HRW has repeatedly turned to the Azerbaijani authorities to conduct an on-site investigation, but so far they have not received permission,” the prominent human rights organization wrote.

Only a month after the use of the banned weapons in Artsakh, international organizations and the media were allowed to visit the Azerbaijani city of Barda, which was followed by a report on the shelling in Azerbaijan published by Human Rights Watch on October 30.Thus, we can state that Ilham Aliyev does not hesitate to lie even in the presence of irrefutable evidence. Aliyev also complains that international human rights organizations do not visit Azerbaijan, while they themselves did not allow them to enter Azerbaijan.

Nelli Lazaryan