Otto Luchterhandt, Professor Emeritus, University of Hamburg:  “Azerbaijan violated international humanitarian law”

In the case of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, in reality we are not dealing with the conflict over the right of the Armenians of Karabakh to self-determination and the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, but with the fact that Azerbaijan violated the principle of non-use of force in international relations. While bombarding the cities and villages of Karabakh, it violated international humanitarian law.

Nagorno Karabakh is not just a territory, but has a special international legal status, it is a de facto state, to which the universal principle of prohibition of the use of force applies by customary international law.

In addition, Nagorno-Karabakh in its relations with Azerbaijan may refer to the prohibition of the use of force on the basis of the Agreement on Ceasefire signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia և Nagorno-Karabakh in May 11, 1994, which is not limited in time and ended the war for the independence of the Armenians of Karabakh. This agreement is a binding and international legal basis for the settlement of the conflict for all parties. 2016 april four-day war was a grave violation of the 1994 Ceasefire agreement. Neither the OSCE Minsk Group, nor other international actors have put pressure on Azerbaijan since then, forcing it to refrain from threatening to resolve the Karabakh conflict by force. As a result, the unleashing the war on September 27 was predictable.

Otto Luchterhandt, Professor Emeritus, University of Hamburg