According to official data from the 2020 war and post-war developments, there are 33 prisoners and 17 new prisoners in 2022. After the events of September 13, Siranush Sahakyan, the representative of the interests of prisoners of war and the president of the Center for International and Comparative Law, stated, “By the way, I should mention that the names of the 8 boys who were shot in the popular video are not reflected in the official numbers of the last 17 prisoners. When we say official prisoners, we must mean that they are alive and at the moment Azerbaijan accepts the fact of the entire captivity. I emphasize it because there is a misconception that they were among confirmed prisoners and were shot. No, they were never included in the official list of prisoners.”
According to Siranush Sahakyan, at least 80 people were captured in the war in 2020. The fact of their capture is not accepted by the authorities of Azerbaijan, in the same way that the number of captives from September 13, 2022, is far higher than the officially announced 17. “This video was also very good proof that there are more cases of real shootings, just that they were shot. I should mention that the dead bodies were handed over to the families and legitimate victims were offered, who allegedly died as a result of combat operations, but from the beginning the presumption of killing them while they were in captivity was not put forward and in order for us to have the true picture, I think we need every dead body handed over.
They shall be subjected to thorough studies, examinations, and tests in order to find out whether the presumption of killing by shooting while alive is probable, and under what circumstances these injuries occurred. In the conditions of a large number of victims, I am sure that the state does not carry out consistent actions, and that is why many of our victims are perceived as victims of combat operations, but they are actually soldiers who were killed extrajudicially during capture. We recorded such cases in the war in 2020, both individual and collective shooting incidents. We have a much worse case. I will give the example of the case of 6 servicemen left in Hadrut’s forests that was discussed a lot among the public. They had been hiding for months and managed to survive, then they were shot and the Azerbaijani side handed over their bodies to the Armenian side.
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We also have a positive case where 6 servicemen were brought out alive as a result of search operations. But after this, in the places where Armenian servicemen could be hidden, the Azerbaijani side forbade the implementation of any humanitarian operation, intensified its search operations, discovered the surviving, naturally unhealthy, and exhausted Armenian servicemen who were unable to show any resistance. They inhumanely shot the soldiers and their bodies handed over to the Armenian side.” Turning to the approaches of international structures, Siranush Sahakyan emphasized that for a very long time, the international community has been putting a sign of false equality between the sides of Armenia and Azerbaijan, thereby justifying its inaction.
Lusine MARGARYAN
