The Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (ISSI), in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan held a seminar on February 20, 2018, on Crimes against Humanity: Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing. The seminar was organized to commemorate the 100th anniversary of 1918 genocide of Azerbaijanis and also 26th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide. Lt. Gen. (Retd) Nasser Khan Janjua, National Security Adviser was the Chief Guest at the occasion. The speakers at the seminar included H.E. Mr. Ali Alizada, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr. Ihsan Mustafa Yurdakul, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey and Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
Welcoming the Chief Guest and the distinguished speakers, Chairman ISSI, Ambassador Khalid Mahmood highlighted the Khojaly massacre in February 1992 at the hands of the Armenians when 613 people including 106 women, 53 children and 70 older people were indiscriminately killed. He said that the extermination of Azeris by Armenia constitutes the crime of Genocide in terms of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide. The plight of the Azeri people living under Armenia’s occupation in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent seven areas also calls attention to international laws governing foreign occupation spelled out in the 1907 Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention along with its Additional Protocol as well as customary international law. The territories under Armenia’s occupation are an integral part of Azerbaijan, and this has been affirmed and reaffirmed in UN Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 as well as the 2009 UN General Assembly resolution. The Armenian forces have repeatedly grossly violated the international norms enshrined in these legal instruments.
