The events on the occasion of the 71st anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and in connection with the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime will be held at the UN headquarters on December 9.

Axar.az reports citing Trend.

In this regard, representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Yashar Aliyev sent an official letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

In this letter, the Azerbaijani diplomat wrote that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is one of the first international treaties, which the Republic of Azerbaijan joined after regaining its independence and becoming a UN member.

“The universal ratification of the Convention will become an important consolidated commitment of the international community to the eradication of the crime of genocide,” the representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations added.

The Azerbaijani diplomat emphasized the importance of the UN mandate to prevent genocide and the concept of “responsibility to protect” in promoting national and international efforts to protect population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

“Proceeding from its own experience, Azerbaijan knows about the "flagrant calamity" of genocide,” the letter said. “The memory of thousands civilians who died as a result of the massacres committed by the Armenian armed forces in 1918 is revered on March 31, which is marked as the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis.”

“Heinous acts of violations of international humanitarian law, equal to war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide, were committed during the war launched by Armenia against Azerbaijan in the late 1980s,” the Azerbaijani diplomat said.