“International human rights defenders operating in Armenia, even outside Armenia, investigative bodies of Armenia have recorded and revealed more cases of arrests than what was officially reported by Azerbaijan. Therefore, Armenian, not Azerbaijani, sources should have been used as a source. 33 is the official number, and we have talked and continue to talk about an additional 80 cases.
Moreover, we also gave information about those 80 cases to international structures. In other words, this is not an abstract number for us and, there is a clear description of each case, which is verifiable,” said lawyer Siranush Sahakyan, representing the interests of Armenian prisoners at the ECHR. To remind, RA NA Speaker Alen Simonyan, who was in Turkey the other day, spoke about 33 Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan, while, according to various testimonies, that number is ten times more. Earlier, the official Yerevan announced that the number of people in captivity in Azerbaijan is much more than what Azerbaijan confirmed.
The “Tatoyan” Foundation has published a new report on the Azerbaijani attack on Jermuk on September 13-14, 2022. Siranush Sahakyan was also involved in the preparation of the report. Arman Tatoyan and Siranush Sahakyan presented the report today.
According to the studies included in the report, the number of extrajudicial, arbitrary killings against Armenians in Azerbaijan has increased. “For example, within the framework of the 2022 war, we recorded 33 cases of capture. With a fact-finding mission, we were able to prove the extrajudicial, arbitrary killing of 14 people by Azerbaijani service members.
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In other words, we have about 40 percent of murders. More cases of reprisals against captured persons have been recorded, if compared to the war of 2020. This proves that the events of 2020 gave rise to impunity, which was encouraging for the Azerbaijani servicemen who participated in the war in 2022,” explained Siranush Sahakyan.
Regarding the fact that the treatment of Armenians under the control of Azerbaijan is combined with targeted actions that cause additional suffering to their families, Siranush Sahakyan elaborated. “We had a case in 2020 when photos of a soldier with his throat cut were posted on his own social media page. We have had many cases when family members were taken out by taking their phones and photos revealing war crimes involving that person or his comrades were sent to their relatives.”
Siranush Sahakyan also recorded a tendency not to reveal the fate of the missing. “Cases have been recorded when the Azerbaijani side well knows the location of the dead serviceman, they have access to the body of the dead serviceman, but they deliberately do not take the body and do not hand it over to the family members.
They also approach them demonstratively, take photos, and spread them in the media. It is evidence that our number of missing people since 2020 is not the result of objective processes, but a targeted policy towards Armenians.”
According to the speaker, it is almost impossible not to know the location of the bodies in current conditions. “Not revealing the fate of the missing is just revenge in response to the existence of the missing on the Azerbaijani side back in the 1990s.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
