Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross have visited two ethnic Azerbaijanis, who were taken hostage by Armenian militaries in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories last year.

ICRC officials visited Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who were taken hostage by the Armenian side in Azerbaijan’s occupied Kalbajar region, to become better acquainted with the conditions of detention of the hostages, as well as to provide exchange of information with their families, the ICRC Baku office told Trend.

Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev were captured by Armenian special forces in Shaplar village in July 2014, while they were visiting the graves of their relatives. In the same incident, the special forces killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov.

Following an expedited “judicial process" last December, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.

In July, the Azerbaijani ombudsman appealed to the head of the ICRC office in Azerbaijan, Denis Duran, over the torture suffered by Guliyev and Asgarov in prison. A video confirming that Asgarov had been tortured is circulating on social media, showing Asgarov walking with a limp.

Unfortunately, Guliyev and Asgarov are not the only victims of the Armenian cruelty. They share the fate of over four thousand people, who are still missing.

Azerbaijan’s State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People has registered 4,013 Azerbaijani citizens as missing persons. These are people who have gone missing in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions of Azerbaijan during the Karabakh war.

Armenia avoids giving information about the missing persons, mass graves and the people who can give testimony in connection with captives and hostages taken during the conflict.

With such actions, Yerevan also ruins the life of the people who are still waiting for information about their relatives, family members and beloved ones.

For more than two decades Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a state of war following Yerevan’s aggression, ethnic cleansing policy and illegal territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions in a brutal war in the early 1990s.

Ignoring the long-lasting efforts of international organizations and Azerbaijan’s repeated calls for peaceful solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia still holds the Azerbaijani lands under the occupation.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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