The Diocese
Posted: 04/07/2017
On Sunday, April 2, 2017, a Requiem Service was held in all Diocesan parishes for the souls of the fallen Armenian solders and innocent Armenian civilians who fell victim to the Azerbaijani military aggression in the Four Days War of April 2016.
In the early morning hours of April 2, 2016, Azerbaijani armed forces launched simultaneous attacks along the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact. Azerbaijan’s military committed acts of aggression committed against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh, including targeting civilian school children and the elderly. The massive scale attack on the military bases of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic as well as Armenia’s bordering villages claimed the lives of tens of soldiers and civilians, leaving hundreds more injured. There was evidence of gross human rights violations (attacking and mutilating innocent civilians in their homes; signs of torture on bodies of Armenian soldiers, etc.) by Azerbaijani military that run contrary to International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions (August 12, 1949) relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts.
