The Office of the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh has drawn up a closed report on the inhumane treatment of Armenian servicemen and civilians who are in territories under Azerbaijani control. All of those reports were sent to the relevant bodies, international agencies, and organizations. Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan spoke about this during his final press conference.
“The main response has been silence, but specific interest has been shown in specific cases. I personally am working with specific international organizations, especially non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and several other well-known organizations that have already begun to conduct visits or remote research. They need the results of our fact-finding activities within the framework of their own activities. I am constantly supporting them and other organizations that are interested as much as my authority and abilities will allow,” he said.
Artak Beglaryan noted that the Commissions for Human Rights of the UN and Council of Europe, as well as a number of other relevant bodies and expert groups, are constantly conducting research. However, they are restrained in their statements, and they artificially make both sides of the conflict equal to one another. “Meanwhile, this is very unacceptable. And they have already publicly announced that they intend on carrying out a fact-finding mission or monitoring visit to Artsakh, which is very welcomed although it has been delayed. But it is their responsibility to visit and assess the situation here. It would have been great if they had a delegation in Artsakh before the war and if they did not isolate Artsakh. It would have been great if they visited during the war as well, but they did neither. But it is at least a good thing that they intend to visit after the war. I hope that they will no longer politicize visits to unrecognized states, especially Artsakh, after all of this, and they will carry out their responsibilities within the framework of their mandates regardless of Azerbaijan’s position or unconstructive behavior.”
Ami Chichakyan
