“How does Amnesty International, which was silent while babies were being destroyed by rocket strikes in Ganja, Barda, and Tartar, now shamelessly defend the rights of an Azerbaijani in the example of Ibadoglu?”
Bahruz Maharramov, a member of the Legal Policy and State Building Committee of the Milli Majlis, said this in his statement to Pravda.az.
But was Amnesty International silent when Ganja, Barda, and Tartar were hit by rocket attacks?
Fakt Yoxla checked whether this claim was true.
In the course of the Second Karabakh War, the Armenian Armed Forces launched rocket attacks on Ganja city in Azerbaijan on October 4, 5, 8, 11, and 17. As a result, 26 civilians lost their lives, at least 140 people were injured, and more than 3 thousand objects were damaged. 112 people, including 26 women, 72 men, and 14 minors, were injured and 29 people were killed as a result of rocket attacks on Garayusifli village, Barda district on October 27, 2020, and Barda city on October 28. On October 28, 16 civilians were killed and 63 people were injured as a result of rocket attacks on Tartar.
Amnesty International released a statement on October 5, 2020, a day after the rocket attack on Ganja, and noted that according to the information provided by Azerbaijan, Armenian Armed Forces attacked civilian areas in Ganja, the second largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as in other cities. According to the statement, “Amnesty International experts have verified that 300mm Smerch rocket artillery systems do appear to have been used by Armenian forces, the photographic and video evidence available from the Azerbaijani side does not yet allow for conclusive analysis of its specific targets, nor whether the rocket warheads contained cluster munitions.”
Amnesty International released a statement on October 20, “Civilian casualties and severe damage to civilian buildings were reported most notably in the city of Ganja in Azerbaijan that has repeatedly suffered artillery shelling from the Armenian side in recent days.”
In a statement published a day after the attack on the city of Barda, Amnesty International confirmed that Armenia was using banned cluster bombs. The organization's Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Marie Struthers, said in a statement, “The firing of cluster munitions into civilian areas is cruel and reckless, and causes untold death, injury and misery.”
In a report published on January 14, 2021, the organization said, “Amnesty International documented eight strikes carried out by Armenian forces (p. 7) on towns and villages in Azerbaijan that killed a total of 72 civilians.” Furthermore, A strike using a SCUD-B ballistic missile carried out by Armenian forces on the Mukhtar Hajiyev neighbourhood of Ganja on 17 October killed 21 civilians and injured more than 50 others, destroying part of the neighbourhood. In the report, it was noted that houses were damaged and there were dead and injured as a result of rocket attacks by the Armenian Armed Forces on Barda's Garayusifli village (p. 7), Barda city (p. 10), Gashalti (p. 7) near Naftalan. It was also shown that the settlement built for IDPs in Tarter in the early 1990s was seriously damaged (p. 7).
Amnesty International added to its report a photo showing the remains of rockets launched by Armenian forces which hit the city of Tartar in Azerbaijan during the 44-day conflict (p. 7).
It was also stated in the article published by Fakt Yoxla in 2020 that Amnesty International did not apply to the Azerbaijani government to prepare a report during the Second Karabakh War. Levan Asatiani, campaign coordinator for the South Caucasus of the organization, told Fakt Yoxla that the government of Azerbaijan established the first contact with the general secretariat of Amnesty International through the embassy in London. He also said that before the embassy's appeal, the Azerbaijani side contacted them through an activist. As we mentioned above, Amnesty International confirmed on October 29 that Armenia used banned cluster bombs.
Thus, Amnesty International commented on the incidents of Armenia's missile attack on Azerbaijan's territory during the Second Karabakh War and the fact that people were killed and published statements about it.
Fakt Yoxla concludes that MP’s claim is Mainly False.
