ICRC visits Azerbaijan's Asgarov, Guliyev in Armenian captivity
By Nazrin Gadimova
Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have visited Azerbaijani captives Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who were taken hostage by Armenian militaries in the occupied Azerbaijani territory.
The ICRC office in Baku announced about this while talking to Trend on March 15.
The visit was aimed at getting acquainted with their treatment and conditions of detention, as well as ensuring the exchange of information with their families.
During an operation conducted in the Shaplar village of Azerbaijan’s occupied Kalbajar region in July 2014, Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov while they were attempting to visit the graves of their relatives.
A year later, the unrecognized courts of a separatist regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh illegally judged them. Following the decision of the so-called court, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.
Baku, as well as a number of international organizations, has repeatedly urged Yerevan to free the hostages, but the Armenian side remained deaf, ignoring all calls and violating the international rules and norms was subjecting the hostages to various tortures.
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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