The armed aggression by Armenia against Azerbaijan that continued almost for 30 years has had serious humanitarian consequences. 

A scorched-earth policy implemented by Armenia involved the ethnic cleansing of the occupied territories of all Azerbaijanis and the brutal killing or wounding of thousands of civilians, including children.

Over more than thirty years, Azerbaijan has hosted one of the highest numbers of refugees and displaced persons in the world. Thus, the number of internally displaced people from the territories of Azerbaijan subjected to the occupation as well as from the areas adjacent to the border with Armenia and the former line of occupation exceeded 820 000.

Furthermore, about 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from their homes in Armenia at the end of the 1980s. Their forcible deportation was accompanied by killings, enforced disappearances, the destruction of property and pillaging.

Armenia’s offensive against Azerbaijan in September 2020 also severely affected the lives of hundreds of thousands people in Azerbaijan. 84 000 people were forced to temporarily leave their places of habitual residence, among them the IDPs who repetitively suffered the tragedy of forced displacement.

More than 23000 Azerbaijanis lost their lives as a result of armed aggression against Azerbaijan.

Besides, Armenia extensively practiced taking and holding of hostages and mistreatment and summary execution of Azerbaijani POW and hostages during its aggression against Azerbaijan. 3890 citizens (3171 servicemen, 719 civilians) of Azerbaijan are still missing as a result of the armed aggression by Armenia against Azerbaijan. It has been established that 872 of the 3890 missing persons were either taken as prisoners of war or hostages, including 267 civilians of whom 29 children, 98 women and 112 elderly people. Armenia refused to account for the missing persons, as well to conduct a prompt and effective investigation into the fate.

To give a sense of the scale of the devastation caused by the aggression, more than 900 settlements, 150,000 homes, 1100 educational facilities and 520 healthcare facilities have been looted, plundered and destroyed in the territories of Azerbaijan subjected to military occupation.

Over thirty years of the armed aggression, purposeful measures were undertaken by the Armenian side to prevent the Azerbaijani internally displaced persons from returning to their homes and properties. Such measures included, among others, the implantation of settlers in the occupied territories, infrastructure changes, destruction and desecration of historical and cultural heritage.

Armenia also massively laid mines in the territories of Azerbaijan subjected to its occupation. Furthermore, it deliberately planted mines on a massive scale during its forced withdrawal from the occupied territories as stipulated in the Trilateral Statement of 10 November 2020. As a result, Azerbaijan is one of the most mine / explosive ordnance contaminated countries in the world.

Armenia mined not only battlefields but also agriculture fields, graveyards, gardens and other social and economic means in order to inflict human losses as much as possible.

Since the Trilateral Statement of 10 November 2020, 190 Azerbaijani citizens (as of December 10, 2021) have been killed and seriously wounded / disabled as a result of mine explosions in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the number of killed or disabled by mines and explosive remnants of war amounts to approximately 3500.

Massive mine contamination of the liberated territories seriously impedes the realization of wide-ranging rehabilitation and reconstruction plans the Government of Azerbaijan has embarked on. Most importantly, it affects the realization of inalienable right of the hundreds of thousands of IDPs to return to their homes in safety and dignity after almost 30 years of ethnic cleansing.