The Seventh Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations should have been cancelled in Azerbaijan, a country that grossly violates the very aims, principles, values of the Alliance of Civilizations, Armenia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Armenia remains committed to the purposes of the Alliance,” the statement said.

“However, given current circumstances in the aftermath of Azerbaijan's aggression against Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia does not join the consensus on the Declaration of the Seventh Forum of the ‪UN‬ Alliance of Civilizations. The Declaration, therefore, cannot be adopted.”

“Armenia rejects the Seventh Forum, to be held in Baku,” the Ministry added.

On the night of April 1-2, Azerbaijani armed forces initiated overt offensive operations in the southern, southeastern and northeastern directions of the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

“From the very beginning of the Azerbaijani offensive, the civilian infrastructures and civilian population, including children and the elderly, became intentional and indiscriminate targets. Among the first civilian victims was a 12-year-old boy who was killed in front of the school building in a Grad missile attack, while two other kids were wounded.

In a Karabakh village, three elderly persons, including a 92 year old woman, were brutally tortured, mutilated and killed.

Moreover, three soldiers of the Nagorno Karabakh armed forces were beheaded by Azerbaijani armed forces, which was subsequently celebrated in the towns and villages and publicized through social networks. Furthermore, during the exchange of bodies of the deceased between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, carried out through the mediation of the International Committee of Red Cross and the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office, it was registered that the bodies of fallen soldiers transferred by the Azerbaijani side bore traces torture and mutilation,” the Ministry said.

“Those barbaric acts, going beyond elementary norms of civilized world constitute violations of core international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Convention on the Rights of the Child, etc. In this context, it is also imperative to specifically mention the blatant violation by Azerbaijan of Geneva Convention of 1949, which inter alia addresses groups exposed to specific risks, such as children, women and elderly.”