Twenty-four Armenians wanted for war crimes against Azerbaijan
By Vugar Khalilov
Prosecutor-General Kamran Aliyev has said that 24 Armenians were put on the international wanted list on charges of committing war crimes against Azerbaijan during the 44-day war in 2020, Trend reported on October 1.
Aliyev stressed that 76 criminal cases had been launched into the Armenian war crimes.
"Some 39 of them are related to crimes committed against the civilian population. It is known that during the Patriotic War, most of the crimes were committed against the Azerbaijani civilian population," he added.
Moreover, 300 people who had committed crimes against Azerbaijani servicemen during the First Karabakh War (1988-1994) and during the ceasefire were also put on the wanted list, Aliyev highlighted.
Commenting on foreign companies involved in illegal business activities in Karabakh during the Armenian occupation, Aliyev said that operational and investigative measures are being taken to bring them to justice as well.
“Investigative and operational measures also continue in criminal cases related to the facts of illegal entrepreneurship of specific foreign companies on the liberated territories, which led to a gross violation of the rules for the protection and exploitation of subsoil, as well as to prosecute, within the framework of international law, all those responsible for the illegal settlement of the ancestral Azerbaijani lands,” Aliyev added.
The prosecutor-general added that Armenia's criminal military and political leadership must be brought to justice in international courts.
"We must bring the Armenian leadership and other officials to justice in international courts. Commissions have been set up in this regard. The aim is to bring the perpetrators to justice and achieve compensations," Aliyev stressed.
He noted that the Prosecutor-General's Office had filed lawsuits on crimes committed by the Armenian military and political leadership, and servicemen during the 44-day war.
The lawsuit had already been accepted by the International Court of Justice and will be considered on October 18, Aliyev said.
“Crimes have been documented in accordance with the requirements of procedural law. We have enough evidence. We had a special investigation department in the Military Prosecutor's Office. It investigates only crimes committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani citizens. The case is being investigated and evidence is being gathered,” Aliyev said.
He underlined that the evidence and arguments obtained are being processed.
Armenia's aggression and illegal occupation caused irreparable damages to Azerbaijan's cultural heritage, which includes thousands of cultural values, including monuments of the world and national importance, mosques, temples, mausoleums, museums, art galleries, sites of archaeological excavations, libraries and rare manuscripts.
At the same time, Armenia deliberately and constantly planted mines on Azerbaijani territories, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, thereby being a major threat to regional peace, security and cooperation.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10, 2020, brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.
The peace agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions and withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historic Shusha city.
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