Letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the initial results of the ongoing investigation conducted by the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan in connection with the intentional killing by the Armenian armed forces of Azerbaijani civilians in the village of Bashlibel of the Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan in April 1993 as a result of the aggressive policy of Armenia, was circulated as a document of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.

In the letter, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov informed that currently, in the post-conflict period, the relevant authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan have received additional information about war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the armed forces of Armenia as a result of the aggressive policy pursued by Armenia against our country for almost 30 years in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan.

In particular, it is brought to the attention of the Secretary-General that in the course of the investigations carried out, facts of manifestation of special cruelty and violence, as a result of the aggression of the armed forces of Armenia, against the civilian population of the Bashlibel village of the Kalbajar district, along with other districts, were revealed. The villagers were reportedly massacred and the hostages were subjected to torture, and the entire village was completely destroyed and razed to the ground.

Thus, it was noted that on April 3, 1993, the armed forces of Armenia attacked the village of Bashlibel, massively looted and completely burned houses belonging to the residents of the village, and 62 people who could not leave the village took refuge in caves in the mountainous area located about 3 km away from the village. It is reported that the armed forces of Armenia, not satisfied with the atrocity they committed, on April 18, 1993, found the shelters of unarmed civilians on the rocks in the village, murdered helpless civilians, and also deliberately killed 12 people, including 1 child and 1 teenager.

It is noted that the Bashlibel tragedy is by no means is an isolated case, but adds to numerous previously identified war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Armenia in the course of its armed aggression against Azerbaijan, and emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive investigation to all those crimes to ensure justice and post-conflict reconciliation.

In the letter, the Minister also stressed the inadmissibility of Armenia’s continued refusal to provide any information about more than 4,000 Azerbaijanis who went missing during the 1991-1994 war.

Minister Jeyhun Bayramov once again appealed to the Secretary-General with a request to establish the truth over numerous war crimes committed against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis, as well as to render assistance in bringing clarity to the fates of thousands of missing Azerbaijanis, the elimination of the threat to life posed by landmines, and stressed that the solution of these issues, as stipulated in the trilateral statement, is important from the point of view of ensuring peace, security and cooperation in the region.

The document of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council can be found at the following link: https://undocs.org/a/75/875.