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Baku expresses concerns over fate of Azerbaijani hostages

22 July 2014 12:48 (UTC+04:00)
Baku expresses concerns over fate of Azerbaijani hostages

By Jamila Babayeva

Azerbaijan has expressed concern over the fate of Azerbaijanis taken hostages by Armenia in the occupied Kalbajar region.

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov voiced Baku's position at a meeting with Head of Azerbaijan Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRС) Deniz Duran on July 21.

"We are concerned over the fate of Azerbaijani civilians, as there is no information about them so far," Hasanov said. "President Ilham Aliyev is pursuing the issue personally."

Three Azerbaijani civilians (reportedly Russian citizen Dilgam Ahmadov and Azerbaijani citizens Shahbaz Guliyev and Hasan Hasanov) were detained by Armenian forces in early July.

Armenia violated the international legal norms by taking hostage the Azerbaijani civilians as they didn't violate any border law between Armenia and Azerbaijan. They were on their own native Kalbajar region which has been under Armenia's occupation since 1993.

Hasanov further noted that those persons were IDPs.

"Their aim was to visit their homeland and graves of their relatives. These persons were taken hostage by invaders in the internationally recognized Azerbaijani territories," he said. "They did not violate norms and principles of any international law."

He went on adding that, despite all these facts, Armenia is spreading false information about them and violating provisions of 1949 Geneva Convention on "Protection of Civilians during the war."

Hasanov also stressed the importance of ICRC's role to release the hostages.

Earlier, ICRC Baku office reported that it is in contact with conflicting sides. ICRC Yerevan office also said that it is negotiating to organize a meeting with the Azerbaijani hostages.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Law Policy and State-Building Rovshan Rzayev stated that the absence of information about the Azerbaijani hostages confirms that they are being tortured.

"Armenia has never relied to the norms of international law," he said. "Azerbaijani IDPs have been taken as a hostage in their own lands and they are being tortured. ICRC must take its works most seriously," Rzayev told local media.

The fate of Azerbaijani hostages is also in the spotlight of international organizations.

The European Union (EU) is closely following the issue of Azerbaijani hostages. The EU's press service reported that the circumstances of the detained citizens are still unclear for them. "The matter needs to be checked with the ICRC, because it is pursuing the issue specifically," the report noted.

The International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (BSCSIF) recently expressed deep concerns over the fate of Azerbaijanis taken hostage by Armenian military in Kalbajar region.

The fund urged ICRC to take all necessary measures within its power as soon as possible to ensure normal conditions for the hostages and arrange a meeting with them to release them soon.

However, the OSCE Minsk Group which has been involved in peace talks over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has not yet commented on the issue.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four U.N. Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

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