Armenia has strongly criticized the findings of a United Nations mission that visited Nagorno Karabakh this week following the displacement of its Armenian residents.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry, in a statement today, claims the mission, led by U.N. Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Vladanka Andreeva, “was used by Azerbaijan to promote its propaganda explanations and legitimize the large-scale attack on Nagorno-Karabakh and its consequences.”

Here’s a passage from the mission’s findings:

“Traveling from Aghdam, the mission visited the city of Khankendi, where the team met with the local population and interlocutors and saw first-hand the situation regarding health and education facilities.  In parts of the city that the team visited, they saw no damage to civilian public infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and housing, or to cultural and religious structures.”

The Armenian Foreign Ministry says such findings are extremely biased and do not reflect the situation on the ground.

“It does not contain any reference to the numerous casualties and injuries caused by the large-scale attack by Azerbaijan, the targeting of civilian infrastructure, the blockade of the Lachin Corridor for more than nine months and the resulting humanitarian crisis, the abduction of citizens by the Azerbaijani special services at the illegal checkpoint near the Hakar Bridge, and other facts known to international partners.”

The following passage in the mission’s findings was of particular concern to Armenia.

“The mission was struck by the sudden manner in which the local population left their homes and the suffering the experience must have caused.  The mission did not come across any reports – neither from the local population interviewed nor from the interlocutors - of incidences of violence against civilians following the latest ceasefire.”

The Armenian Foreign Ministry, in response, says Armenia expects a clear response from the U.N. to ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, gross violations of fundamental human rights of the NK people and international humanitarian law, in accordance with the fundamental principles of international law and the UN Charter.