Artsakh Human Rights Defender Artak Beglaryan on Thursday posted a video on his Facebook page showing an elderly man being dragged and manhandled.

Beglaryan identified the man in the video as 80-year-old Jonik Tatevosyan, a resident of Shushi who was captured by Azerbaijani Armed Forces and was unable to leave Shushi after the city fell to Azerbaijan.

“Tevosyan’s family has applied to our staff asking for help in protecting the rights of their relative. We have provided the available information to the International Committee of the Red Cross, requesting that the lives and rights of Artsakh citizens be protected as soon as possible, in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law,” Beglaryan wrote on Facebook.

“This video, once again, reveals the systemic and deep-rooted nature of anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan, which are fully encouraged by the state. This is one episode of the continuing chain of Armenophobia and war crimes, and it is unfortunate to note that more than one such cruel episode is not only directly welcomed by the Azerbaijani society, but also continues due to the blindness, deafness and dumbness of the international community,” added Beglaryan.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry of Thursday also condemned the barbaric behavior of Azerbaijanis against Armenians in Artsakh, citing the deplorable treatment of the Tevosyan, as well as the Azerbaijanis continued destruction of Armenian monuments and cultural sites.

“The degrading attitude of the Azerbaijani soldiers toward an elderly citizen of Artsakh, on the basis of his ethnic origin is strongly deplorable. That action, as well as its further glorification by the Azerbaijani society is simply a rejection of the accepted moral values,” said Armenia’s foreign ministry.

The foreign ministry also cited the defacement and vandalism of a statute of Armenian military leader and hero of Artsakh Vazgen Sargsyan as an example of Azerbaijanis racist and violent attempts to denigrate Armenians.

“Recent atrocities perpetrated by the Azerbaijani side are based on its anti-Armenian policies initiated and encouraged by the leadership of Azerbaijan for decades, which has been aimed at carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Armenians of Artsakh,” said the foreign ministry.

“Factual evidence about Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian and racist policy has been accumulating on a daily basis because of video posts depicting the glorification of war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces in the territories of Artsakh which are currently under Azerbaijan’s occupation,” said Armenia’s foreign ministry.

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