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The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) and the Armenian National Committee of Belgium released a joint statement armenianweekly.com/2016/04/03/eafjd-anc-of-belgium condemning Azerbaijan’s recent aggression against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh).

It is stressed that Azerbaijan continues to derail the negotiation process by undermining the OSCE. It is noted that in September 2015 in New York, the Minsk Group co-chairs called on the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to accept an OSCE mechanism to investigate ceasefire violations. However, Baku rejected the proposal. “Of course, as is the norm with Baku, those calls for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through peaceful negotiations were ignored,” the statement says.

“If the international community had called the aggressor ‎Azerbaijan to restraint, no lives would have been lost today. Responsible bodies should stop expressing concern; they must point their finger at Azerbaijan and stop Azerbaijani President [Ilham] Aliyev’s dangerous adventurism,” the statement stresses.

Kaspar Karampetian, president of the European Armenian Federation, said that they already have taken the necessary steps to mobilize their chapters in Europe in engaging with the representatives in their countries and the international bodies into forcing Azerbaijan to get back to the negotiating table. He also said that Turkey is responsible as well in stepping up the aggression against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Central Executive Board of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) also issued a statement armenianweekly.com/2016/04/03/ars-statement-on-baku-aggression in light of Baku’s recent escalation of violence along the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) Line of Contact. According to the statement, for almost two years now, the gradually increasing attacks of the Azeri Armed Forces against Nagorno-Karabakh’s and Armenia’s units guarding the borders, and the targeting of villages and towns located near the conflict zone have become more frequent and furious.

“Over the past weekend, the powers in Baku once again staged an unprovoked act of aggression, with coordinated use of heavy artillery, armored vehicles, and air support, endangering the already tenuous ceasefire status. We can thankfully state that, sustaining considerable casualties and material losses, the aggressors retreated after crashing against the unyielding defensive line of the Armenian forces,” the statement says.

It is noted that the Armenian Relief Society cannot stay indifferent in the face of murderous attacks on schoolchildren and peaceful, harmless populations. “Together with all decent peoples, we condemn the indiscriminate armed attacks targeting the Armenian populations, as the number of innocent victims—killed, wounded, and maimed—keeps increasing with every murderous attack. Therefore, we call upon all international and non-governmental entities to express their revulsion in view of the continuous bloodshed caused by these premeditated violent actions,” the statement stresses.

The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) has written to www.anc.org.au/news/Media-Releases/ANC-Australia-calls-on-Prime-Minister-Turnbull-to-condemn-Azerbaijan-attacks-on-Nagorno-Karabakh Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull calling on his government to “unequivocally condemn the GRAD Missile attacks by the Azerbaijani Army on the civilian population of Karabakh.”

The Armenian National Committee of Australia informed the Prime Minister about the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and called on to condemn dictator Ilham Aliyev for the violation of the ceasefire on the Line of Contact.

“The fact that innocent Armenian civilians were targeted, including the shelling of a school, which resulted in the death of a 12 year old boy, shows the outright seriousness of this violation. Azerbaijan must be held fully responsible for its actions, and we expect that the Australian government, along with the international community, fully condemns the aggression shown by Azerbaijan, and finally moves away from unproductive ‘neutral’ statements,” the statement stresses.