Shushi Events Need Legal Assessment

SHUSHI EVENTS NEED LEGAL ASSESSMENT

18:39 24.03.2014

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

March 23 marked the 94th anniversary of the bloody events in Shushi.

The massacres in the city with a 30 thousand Armenian population
resulted in the death of 7-8 thousand people, about 17 thousand
Armenians left the city. After this the Armenian history of Shushi
was consigned to oblivion for about 70 years.

To mark the anniversary the Shushi History Museum and the “Kachar”
scientific center organized a discussion at the Artsakh State
University. Participants of the conference adopted a statement, which
says that “the massacres organized and perpetrated by the Democratic
Republic of Azerbaijan and the burning of the once flourishing city
were not only the continuation of the Turkish policy of Armenocide,
but were also targeted against humanity and democracy.”

Participants of the discussion – historians, political scientists
and lawyers – referred not only to historic episodes, but also the
ongoing propaganda war and the counter-actions.

The Shushi events need a legal assessment. According to lawyer Avetik
Harutyunyan, these can be described as genocide.

In the statement the participants denounced the events of 94 years ago,
voicing confidence that the condemnation and legal assessment of the
ongoing policy of terrorism and ethnic cleansing are effective tools
to prevent such phenomena in the future.

According to the participants of the discussion, impunity is the
reason of the criminal policy adopted by the Republic of Azerbaijan,
the successor of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan.

Vivid examples of this policy include the massacres and deportation
of 1987-1991, the war unleashed against Artsakh and today’s situation
at the border.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/03/24/shushi-events-need-legal-assessment/