According to human rights activist Siranuysh Sahakyan, aside from the fact that about 150 cases were discovered and confirmed, and the issues surrounding the return of individuals are being resolved, they believe that the circumstances of the disappearance of more than a hundred people may speak in favor of captivity.
“If the contact between the mediators is effective and it is not delayed for different reasons, I consider it to be realistic that we will be able to organize the return of more than a hundred prisoners of war by the New Year. At the moment, we have a little more than a hundred confirmed cases, the majority of which have also been accepted by officials in Azerbaijan. Therefore, the return of these individuals in the near future is unavoidable,” the co-founder of the Path of Law NGO, Siranuysh Sahakyan, told Aravot Daily in an interview.
According to her, the reason for the delay in finding prisoners of war and people missing in action is the failure in negotiiations. If there was a negotiator who understood the interests of the Armenian side, they would attach importance to humanitarian issues and set certain conditions in conjunction with the signing of the capitulation agreement, which was very realistic, and according to which the transfer of territories under Armenian control would have only occurred after a finalized list of prisoners of war was provided, and their return took place. Regarding this, the human rights activist said, “This did not take place, and even more, the Armenian side quickly returned two individuals to Azerbaijan. It did not even attempt to find a solution in which it would have kept a certain lever in its hands. For example, Armenia could have returned one of the saboteurs, but kept the other. As a result, Azerbaijan got everything it needed, but on the other hand, no one considered the interests of Armenian citizens during negotiations. In these circumstances, we encountered a situation in which the Azerbaijani side continues to delay and violate international responsibilities, and is constantly bargaining for other new things from the Armenian side.” The activist said that the only way in which they are trying to compensate is through legal work in international courts, which demands many resources and is not as fast as political negotiations or political dialogue. She said, “We are working with international agencies and the Russian side in such conditions. Azerbaijan is obviously lying to the Armenian side. We have facts to support undeniable incidents, but the Azerbaijani side has still not provided Armenia with a concrete list, which is unacceptable. It is painful that the Armenian government and the Russian authorities are tolerating that.”
When asked if there is any news, and if it would be possible for a new group of prisoners of war to return in the coming days, she said, “Yes, because we have several confirmed cases as a result of our activities that the Azerbaijani side has also accepted. They confirmed that those individuals are prisoners in Azerbaijan, and it is inevitable that people will be returned in confirmed cases.”
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When asked how many people this is in reference to, she said, “We have around seventy confirmed cases, but we must also include 30 indisputable cases that may not have been officially confirmed, but neither of the sides nor neutral observers doubt the possibility of their captivity.”
When asked about how many missing people or captives do we have data about that have not been identified yet, Siranuysh Sahakyan said, “We are unable to say anything about those missing in action. I believe that state bodies are unable to provide us with such concrete data. Since we are focused on the defense of the rights of prisoners of war, we were able to gather information, but it is also methodically difficult to come up with a number of people missing in action, especially taking into consideration that the Armenian side did not arm itself with the necessary tools in order to organize the process of identification correctly and quickly. And since the identification of bodies is not taking place appropriately, searches are also ineffective, and we have not seen appropriate interstate cooperation. It is difficult to give a number of how many people were missing in action. Even more, the process of participation in the war, mobilization, and voluntary involvement was carried out so carelessly that even the data regarding those who participated in the war was updated only recently. Considering these omissions in the organization of these activities, it will still take time to clarify who participated in the war, those missing in action, and, of course, dead and identified individuals.”
Siranuysh Sahakyan considers the activities of the Human Rights Defenders Offices of Artsakh and Armenia to be effective. There has also been some cooperation with the European Court of Human Rights. She did not consider the activities of the Armenian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be effective, however.
Tatev Harutyunyan
