Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Armenia bears the responsibility for violation of the agreement on mutual repatriation of those killed during military operations on the contact line of troops.

Azerbaijan’s State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People made the remark on April 18.

The chronology of events proves that responsibility for the agreement’s violation lies on Armenia, the commission believes.

Immediately after the Armenian media reports founding a dead body of an Azerbaijani serviceman on April 16, Baku requested the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to clarify the issue. The ICRC confirmed the reports on the same day and the sides reached an agreement on mutual repatriation.

However, later Armenia denied the reports, saying they were mistaken and told international organizations that they do not have the body of the killed Azerbaijani serviceman.

The State Commission believes that it is unclear why the Armenian side needed twelve hours to clarify belonging of the corpse found in the battlefield.

This shows that Armenians are planning to stage another provocation and it is an example of violation of the international humanitarian law, the commission said. The organization has already urged the international organizations to demonstrate principle stand in dealing with this issue.

Earlier, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry accused Armenia in violating the Geneva Conventions and its obligations under other international documents while refusing to return the body of the Azerbaijani soldier despite the reached agreements.

“Armenia, being far from human values, exposes the corpses to torture and abuse and turns them into objects of revenge and political speculation,” said Hikmet Hajiyev, the Spokesperson for the Ministry.

So far, Azerbaijan’s State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People has registered 4,013 Azerbaijani citizens as missing in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions of Azerbaijan. Armenia avoids giving information about these persons, mass graves and the people who can give testimony in connection with captives and hostages taken during the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

With such actions, Yerevan also ruins the life of the people who are still waiting for information about their relatives, family members and beloved ones.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz