Azerbaijan appeals to ICRC over transfer of Armenian detainees
By Sara Rajabova
The State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of Azerbaijan has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in connection with transfering the Armenian citizens detained when crossing the contact line of the two countries' troops, ICRC Baku Office spokesperson Ilaha Huseynova told Trend news agency on Tuesday.
According to her, the ICRC will carry out its mission of transferring Armenian citizens in accordance with the mandate.
The State Commission said that currently negotiations on the issue are underway with the ICRC.
Last week, the Azerbaijani armed forces detained two Armenian citizens crossing the Line of Contact and the detainees have been handed over to the state commission on POWs.
Resident of Doveh village in Noyemberyan region, Karian Durmush, was detained on March 16 and resident of Aygovid village of Ijevan region, Anaid Shamazasovna, on March 17. They were heading towards Azerbaijan's Gazakh region.
By October 2012, the State Commission registered 4,030 missing citizens of Azerbaijan, including 46 children, 255 women and 353 elderly people.
1,400 citizens of Azerbaijan -- 342 women and 1,058 men -- were released from the Armenian captivity in 1988-2012. There are 175 children (including 64 underage girls) and 289 elderly (112 aged women) among them.
According to well-founded information of the State Commission, a part of the 4,030 missing Azerbaijani citizens remain in the Armenian captivity, and this fact is still being concealed from international organizations, including the ICRC. The list of these persons has been compiled based on testimonies of those released from captivity.
The State Commission concluded having analyzed incoming data that 553 people have been killed in the Armenian captivity or have died for various reasons -- such as torture and diseases. Over 100 of them are women.
Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but Armenia has not followed them to this day.
A precarious cease-fire was signed in 1994. However, units of the Armenian armed forces commit armistice breaches on the frontline almost every day.