Following the signing ceremony of the Nobel Women’s Istanbul Declaration, Ms Ebadi held a joint press conference alongside Nobel Prize laureate laureates July Williams (US) and Tawakkol Karman (Yemen). Asked “23 years ago this time, Armenian armed forces launched an attack on the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly, committing a pure act of genocide against 613 Azerbaijanis – 83 being children and 106 women. Are you thinking of having the Khojaly genocide on your agenda for the rest of your period of activity?”, Ebadi gave the following answer:
“Along with the example you gave, there are a lot more tragedies in Iran, Middle East countries and the Caucasus. Attacking civilians with heavy weapons, killing children, women and elderly people is a crime against humanity, which needs to be stopped. The primary issue is that such relentless attacks carried out against populations should not be forgotten”.
Ebadi said this tragedy will always remain on the agenda.
“At the same time, I call on the media to focus on this horrible tragedy. Moreover, we must draw the world community’s attention to this tragedy. States must be extremely careful about their citizens and other countries’ citizens, and respect human rights. I ask media representatives to keep this tragedy on their agenda. Because tragedies like Khojaly, if forgotten, will lead to more tragic events,” she stressed.
Note that, Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.
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