“Currently, the number of 40 prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan has been confirmed, but our fact-finding shows that an additional 80 people were taken prisoner, but the state refuses to officially acknowledge this. There is no information about their fate,” human rights activist Siranuysh Sahakyan said during a discussion titled “Human Rights Issues in Post-War Armenia and Artsakh: Prisoners of war, cultural vandalism, 30 years after the Artsakh independence referendum” organized by the Security and Democracy NGO on December 10.
“Unfortunately, there is no positive information and we do not know whether they are still kept in hiding or maybe they were killed and hiding the traces of the crime. Baku refuses to return their bodies,” said Siranuysh Sahakyan, adding that there is no clear information about the number of our soldiers captured on November 16. There is no official number; there was talk of 12-13 captives, but according to their information, there are 32 captives.
It is incomprehensible for Siranuysh Sahakyan, but the change in the behavior of the state is positive, when previously no figures were published at all, in that case it was published, but it is strange that a wrong number was published. By the way, Azerbaijan has not yet confirmed the number of hostages taken on November 16, and the representatives of the Red Cross have not visited them in Baku.
Siranuysh Sahakyan also referred to the rumors that have been circulating for a year that some Armenian soldiers went to Iran during the war. She clearly stated that there were no Armenian captives in Iran. The human rights activist does not rule out that this version may have been deliberately circulated as well, as there are people who, due to material or other interests, have informed their relatives about versions that do not correspond to reality. “Those involved in these processes must be held accountable.”
Read also
She said that we are in unequal conditions with Azerbaijan also in the sense that they go to international researchers, think tanks, and lawyers to present the reality in their favor. In the context of applying double standards, Siranuysh Sahakyan views the rejection of the International Court of Justice in The Hague’s request for the immediate release of Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan. The human rights activist said that we had also seen such an approach in the ECHR, in this respect the decision of the Hague court was expected. She declared that this is a reality that comes to prove once and for all that we must rely on our own strength and not on others.
She also compared the cases of Armenian prisoners of war with that of Russian politician Alexander Navalny, emphasizing that political considerations are at the forefront, especially since we have evidence that Armenian prisoners of war were killed in Azerbaijani prisons and even their bodies were not returned to their families.
In any case, Siranuysh Sahakyan positively assessed that the court demands that Azerbaijan refrain from violence.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
