The following is a public statement made by Armenian Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan

To my friends and colleagues:

I am deeply concerned by recent disturbing news from the Line of Contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan as well as from bordering residential areas where innocent civilians, including children, are being targeted indiscriminately.

Azerbaijani military forces continue to grossly violate basic international human rights and humanitarian law.

On April 3, Azerbaijani forces raided Talish village, which is situated a few kilometers inside  Nagorno Karabakh territory, and brutally tortured to death in their own home Valera Khalapian and his wife Razmela, and mutilated their bodies.

This appalling, barbaric act must be condemned without further delay by the international human rights organizations and international community at large.

Azerbaijan violated one of the most important principles of international humanitarian law, which prohibits indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population or civilian objects. According to Article 51 of Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Convention, the civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited. Moreover, International humanitarian law (Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977) provides general protection for children as persons taking no part in hostilities, and special protection as persons who are particularly vulnerable. Article 38 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that States Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts which are relevant to the child.

I call upon my fellow colleagues, Justice Ministers, to respond at once to this medieval atrocity and bring this case to the attention of relevant human rights bodies, since these intentional and horrendous killings of civilians is a war crime.