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Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Gegham Stepanyan on Friday denounced the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Azerbaijan's membership in the UN in Shushi. His full statement is provided below.

"“In the end, it comes down to values [...] We want the world our children inherit to be defined by the values enshrined in the UN Charter: peace, justice, respect, human rights, tolerance, and solidarity.” This is how the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres describes the mission of the UN on the official website of the organization.

But the reality is completely different. Today, the UN, with its specialized agencies, celebrates 30 years of its cooperation with the criminal country in front of about 5,000 homeless and forcibly displaced Armenians from Shushi, an Armenian city that has been occupied by Azerbaijan as a result of the use of force, and crimes against peace, human rights, tolerance, and solidarity.

Whereas for 30 years, succumbing to provocations of Azerbaijan, it directly ignored the rights of the people of Artsakh, showed indifference to thousands of homeless refugees from different cities of the Azerbaijani SSR, remained silent about the war crimes committed by Azerbaijan for 44 days, and today ignores 40,000 people forcibly displaced from the occupied territories of Artsakh.

The UN Secretary-General, all member states, all the responsible persons of the specialized UN agencies participating in the event organized today in Shushi MUST answer: are those their values, does their visit legitimize the occupation of the Armenian city of Shushi, the threat and the use of force, the committed and continuous crimes against the civilian population."