STEPANAKERT (Aysor)–The Azeri army used civilians in Khojalu as human shields during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a high ranking member of the British House of Lords has said.
Speaking to the Armenian language “Aysor” daily on September 22, Deputy Speaker of the British House of Lords, Baroness Caroline Cox, said that Azerbaijan distorts the events of Khojalu to favor its position in the conflict.
She explained that the events of Khojalu did not unfold the way Azerbaijan claims, noting that the Karabakh forces had given the Azeris a timeframe in which to evacuate the city’s civilians.
It was a very cruel and hard war,” she said, adding that a few thousand Armenian civilians-turned-soldiers were up against a far larger, trained, and more equipped, professional army.
Cox said that unlike Azerbaijan, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is developing along a democratic path. She added that the international community is not well informed about the real events surrounding Nagorno Karabakh’s struggle for freedom and independence from Azerbaijan.
“I have monitored Karabakh’s elections along with representatives of different international organizations,” she said, adding that every election in Karabakh has been held according to all the norms of democracy.
She also said she hoped the international community would see exactly how far democracy has come in Karabakh and how its’ people wholeheartedly desire to live free on their historic lands. “I hope that the international community will respect the international right to self determination of all peoples and give the people of Artsakh a chance to determine their own destiny.”
Cox was visiting Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh for the launch of a charity event founded by her and the British “Lilis Consulting” company.
