Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has refused to examine the appeal of Azerbaijani hostages, who are in Armenian captivity for more than two years.

Azerbaijan’s Plenipotentiary Representative in the Strasbourg Court, Chingiz Askerov said that refusal of the European Court to examine the appeal by way of precedent showed its bias position.

“The Court has gradually changed its structure from legal to political and therefore the organization has lost its features of the independent court,” Askerov emphasized.

Relatives of Azerbaijani hostages Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov have appealed to various organizations, including the European Court of Human Rights. Although the appeal showed strong evidences, the ECHR refused to examine the case.

Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained Guliyev and Asgarov while they were attempting to visit the graves of their relatives in July 2014.

Guliyev and Asgarov have been judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of a separatist regime in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited “judicial process" in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.

A number of international organizations, as well as Baku, repeatedly urged Yerevan to start peaceful negotiations on this issue and to free the hostages, the Armenian side remained deaf. Furthermore, the Armenian side ignoring all calls and violating the international rules and norms was subjecting the hostages to various tortures.

The official further added that the Azerbaijani government appealed to the European Court in connection with this issue, but has not yet received a response.

Baku earlier announced that Armenia is responsible for the use of torture against Azerbaijani citizens, as well as for the improvised ‘court’ as it contradicts the European Convention on human rights, international humanitarian law, the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Armenian aggression against its neighboring country resulted in occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. The large-scale hostilities resulted in death 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 are children, elderly people and women.

The Azerbaijani National Security Ministry’s documents earlier revealed that Armenian vandals have set up six women- and children- only internment camps: Vardenis children’s camp (250 occupancy), Razdan children's camp (180 occupancy), Khankendi (Stepanakert) children's camp (180), Gechashen women's camp (320), Jermuk women's camp (250) and Kalbajar women's camp (150).

The available data shows that Armenians have grossly violated the rules and provisions of the conventions on captives and hostages. They subjected hostages to brutal forms of tortures and forced them into hard labor.

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

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