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The Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Artsakh Ruben Melikyan has held a joint press conference with MEP Frank Engel in Strasburg on Tuesday, where Melikyan has presented the findings of the Artsakh Ombudsman’s second interim report on atrocities committed by Azerbaijan during the 2016 April war.

Ruben Melikyan reflected on his meetings held in the European Parliament with number of parliamentarian. 

“In particular I emphasized the systematic violations of human rights occurred during the April war and one of the signs of it has been [the fact] that about 90% of all citizens of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic which fall under the control of Azerbaijan were either tortured, or executed and mutilated,” Melikyan said, adding the cases of aggressions were recorded in all directions of Azerbaijani offensive, most vividly in Talish village  - the symbol of Azerbaijan aggression during April and elsewhere.

Artsakh Ombudsman called for the European human rights structures to urgently engage with and study the cases of gross human rights violations of the Nagorno Karabakh people, informing he had presented not only the public version of the report but also the limited edition detailing on specific cases of each of the victims.

“This is an alarming situation for the human rights community because we cannot provide independent reports due to the lack of engagement of Europe in Artsakh for objective reasons,” stressed Melikyan, referring to the absence of European human rights missions in the region . 

Artsakh Ombudsman also informed the parliamentarians about the situation around journalist and blogger Alexander Lapshin’s arrest and extradition to Azerbaijan, labeling the case as an unfortunate attempt ‘to silence the free speech and obstruct the visits to Artsakh’.

“This appears to be another concerning human rights issue, related to not only Lapshin but also those who have visited or plan to visit Artsakh,” Melikyan said, adding the people of Karabakh have repeatedly displayed readiness to be more engaged with Europeans and take more examples of European values which is worth to be given the chance.