Human Rights Watch Accuses Azerbaijan of Bombing Armenian Church

Breitbart ^ | 12/16/2020 | Gabrielle Reyes

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday that Azeri forces appear to have deliberately bombed a Christian church in the Nagorno-Karabakh town of Shushi during recent fighting over the breakaway territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of shelling the historic Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, located on a strategic clifftop in Shushi, on October 8. The intentional targeting of a civilian building, such as a church, is considered a violation of the laws of war.

“Two separate attacks, hours apart, on the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral on October 8 in the town of Shushi, also known as Shusha, suggest that the church, a civilian object with cultural significance, was an intentional target despite the absence of evidence that it was used for military purposes,” HRW said in a statement on December 16.

The human rights organization says it collected weapon remnants at the site that “corroborate the use of guided munitions.”

“The two strikes on the church, the second one while journalists and other civilians had gathered at the site, appear to be deliberate,” HRW director for Europe and Central Asia Hugh Williamson said.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev told the BBC on November 9 that the church could have been targeted “by mistake only because … the church was not among military targets.”

“Either it was a mistake of our artillery or it was a deliberate provocation by Armenians themselves,” Aliyev said.

Azeri forces shelled the 19th-century cathedral, which is part of the Armenian Apostolic Church, during fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended in a Russia-brokered ceasefire on November 9. The attack took place while Armenian forces still controlled Shushi. Azeri forces have since regained control over the city through territorial concessions Yerevan made to Baku under the terms of the peace deal.

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