Armenia hinders investigation into fate of Azerbaijani hostages
By Sara Rajabova
Baku has lambasted Yerevan for denying the existence of Azerbaijani hostages and prisoners of war in Armenia and the occupied territories.
Hikmet Hajiyev, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Armenia is exposing its own lies while issuing absurd statements that there are no Azerbaijani prisoners of war and hostages in Armenia and the occupied territories, local media reported.
Hajiyev criticized the statements made by Armenian side, which were made at an event on issue of prisoners of war, hostages, and missing people attended by the leadership of the Armenian defense ministry and other government agencies.
Hajiyev said the exchange of views and cooperation on the issue of prisoners of war, hostages, and missing persons between conflicting parties Armenia and Azerbaijan via the International Committee of the Red Cross was proposed at the meeting of the presidents in Paris in late 2014.
“Azerbaijan, having more than 4,000 citizens considered missing persons as a result of Armenian aggression and occupation, expressed readiness for this humanistic proposal. The facts that Azerbaijanis were taken hostage by Armenia, as well as that civilians underwent brutal torture and were massively killed and buried in mass graves were documented based on the testimonies of witnesses and investigation materials,” Hajiyev said.
The Armenian armed forces occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions as a result of the fascistic methods that they employed during the bloody war.
The large-scale hostilities resulted with the deaths of over 20,000 Azerbaijanis, while over 4,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the war.
The majority of those captured during the hostilities were children, elderly people, and women.
Hajiyev went on to say that Azerbaijanis Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov's being kept as hostages is clear evidence of Yerevan’s lies that there are no Azerbaijani prisoners of war and hostages in Armenia and the occupied territories.
Armenian special forces killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov and took Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov hostage in the Shaplar village in the occupied Kalbajar region in July 2014, while they were visiting the graves of their relatives. Following an expedited “judicial process," Dilgam Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Shahbaz Guliyev to 22 years.
Hajiyev noted that it’s enough to remind Armenia the persons whose captivity were approved by this country itself in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“We consider that under the pressure of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and influence of ICRC, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov should be immediately released, mass graves in Armenia and the occupied territories should be opened and a DNA database should be established basing on human remains. Through DNA analysis, the fates of people who went missing could have been defined and their families, who have been waiting for information about their loved ones over 20 years, could have been informed. As a result of Armenia’s inhumane policy, it is impossible to investigate these facts on an individual basis and Armenia—conscious of its international legal responsibility— is trying to inhibit the process with a variety of pretexts,” the official said.
Hajiyev said Armenia bears a legal responsibility for these acts. "This legal responsibility includes the responsibility of military and state officials, who carried out these criminal acts or gave such orders, and Armenia as a state."
“It is disgusting that these people still hold high positions in the political, military leadership and law enforcement agencies in this country. By committing these crimes, the Armenian state flagrantly violated its commitment to the Geneva conventions, the international pact on civil and political rights, the international pact on economic, social and cultural rights, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the protection of cultural property during armed conflicts, and other conventions,” Hajiyev said.
He stressed that using international legal mechanisms, Azerbaijan continues to work on defining the responsibility of the Armenian state and military or public officials who committed these actions.
The Azerbaijani government continues efforts to free the hostages and inquire about those that remain missing.
As of November 1, 2014, the number of Azerbaijanis taken captive, hostage, or lost stood at 4,016 including 3,256 servicemen and 758 civilians. It is unknown whether the remaining two were civilians or servicemen. The missing civilians included 59 children (17 girls), 254 women, and 351 elderly people (154 women).
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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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