YEREVAN, October 28. /TASS/. Baku is torpedoing Yerevan's efforts to establish peace in the South Caucasus, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan said at a meeting of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Samarkand on Friday.
"We regret to state that efforts by Armenia and the international community to establish a lasting peace in the South Caucasus Region are being torpedoed by Baku's military rhetoric and actions," he said.
Simonyan pointed out that "on September 13 of this year, the Azerbaijani armed forces grossly violated international law and the ceasefire regime, by launching a large-scale military invasion of Armenia’s sovereign territory," he said.
"As a result of Azerbaijan's offensive, Armenia ended up with hundreds of victims, wounded, missing and prisoners of war. [We] have civilian casualties, and considerable damage was inflicted on civil infrastructure. Some parts of Armenia's sovereign territory are occupied by the Azerbaijani armed forces," Simonyan added.
According to the top legislator, "horrifying cases of shooting of Armenian prisoners of war on the sovereign soil of Armenia have been recorded." "In this context, a proper international investigation must be conducted and the perpetrators of these atrocities must be punished. Unfortunately, the lack of an unambiguous and targeted response from international and regional structures has allowed Azerbaijan to continue its belligerent policy," he insisted.