HRW study on military use of schools during the Karabakh war

Baku/08.09.21/Turan: “Lessons of the war: strikes on schools during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020,” a study under this name was distributed today by the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch. The study notes that children became victims on the very first day of hostilities last fall.

“On September 27, 2020, a shell burst killed Victoria Gevorgyan. She was only nine. The hit fell on the yard of her house in the Martuni (Khojavend region) region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On the same day, in the Azerbaijani village of Gashalty (Goranboy region), a shell burst killed 13-year-old Shahriyar Kurbanov and his 14-year-old cousin Fidan Kurbanova who were in the courtyard. Along with them, three more adult family members died,” the report says.

The subsequent month and a half of fighting claimed the lives, according to various estimates, more than one and a half hundred civilians, including children, not only Victoria, Shahriyar and Fidan, but also ten more Azerbaijani children.

As a result of hostilities, according to official data, at least 71 schools on the Armenian side were damaged or destroyed, including two on the territory of the Republic of Armenia, and 54 schools on the Azerbaijani side. These statistics do not include dozens of war-torn kindergartens, art and sports schools, and vocational colleges.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, some schools were also used as field hospitals and barracks; some of the schools were looted by local residents and military personnel.

The report reflects the facts of shells hitting kindergartens and schools in the cities of Tartar and Barda, in the villages of Tartar and Aghdam districts.

So, on October 17, as a result of a night strike on Ganja with two operational-tactical missiles Scud-B, 21 people died.

Those who were 250 meters away from the epicenter were injured: kindergarten No. 10 and secondary school No. 29, knocked out windows in school No. 18. Ten civilians died in their homes, four of them were children: 11-year-old Orhan and his 6-year-old sister Maryam (together with sister and mother); 13-year-old Arthur, who lived in his grandmother's house; and 14-year-old Nigar, with whom four relatives died.

Schools in the territories occupied by Armenia - Khankendi, Khojavend and Khojaly regions were also damaged. The Armenian side used the schools to house the military.

In the city of Martuni (Khojavend), according to the employees of school No. 1, the repairs could not be started because on November 10 the servicemen of the "Artsakh Defense Army" were accommodated in the school. By December 19, the military had vacated the school.

After returning to school, the teachers found that her property had been looted.

“Our computers were stolen,” complained the teachers. Including, they took out eight tablets and two laptops, they were only brought in and not even unpacked. They also took out the equipment of their chemical laboratory, as well as copiers and telephones, the study notes.

School number 2 in the city of Agdera was also plundered. There have also been several incidents of military use of schools since the ceasefire. For example, in Lachin at the end of November, the local school No. 1 was used by the Armenian forces as a barracks.

As schools are built and renovated on both sides of the frontline, both the Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities should commit to ensuring that all children have access to school this academic year.

Armenia and Azerbaijan should express their readiness to deploy in areas affected by last year's conflict, an independent international monitoring of the human rights situation in order to document violations and regular and public coverage of the situation and emerging problems and risks. The international partners of Yerevan and Baku should publicly call for the organization of such monitoring, according to a study by Human Rights Watch. –06D-