The Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan issued a statement, which reads:
“Yesterday, on 26 February, 2021, the President of Azerbaijan said: “We carried out an anti-terrorist operation, as a result of which more than 60 terrorists were arrested. They are now called prisoners of war. We believe that this is a distortion of the issue, because there can be no prisoners of war after 20 days of the end of the war. We returned all the prisoners of war. We returned them before they returned our prisoners to us. And these people are not prisoners of war, they are terrorists, saboteurs.”
1, The Human Rights Defender of Armenia once again decisively declares that all servicemen and civilians of the Armenian side detained in Azerbaijan are prisoners by status.
All servicemen were in Artsakh to fulfill their constitutional duty, they were carrying out military legal service in Artsakh.
2, The credible evidence collected by the Office of the Human Rights Defender confirms that the number of those taken prisoner is greater than that confirmed by the Azerbaijani authorities. This also applies to the period until the return of 44 prisoners in one group.
The human rights defender has documented many cases where, despite cases supported by video recordings and other evidence, the Azerbaijani authorities deny the presence of persons or delay the approval process.
3, The initiation of criminal prosecution processes against the captives of the Armenian side held in Azerbaijan, their detention under arrest and even more calling them “terrorists” or “saboteurs” are gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights in general.
For carrying out their military legal service, they should not be subject to any criminal prosecution or be taken into custody as a punishment. This statement comes especially from the requirements of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949.
The Azerbaijani authorities first artificially delayed the return of the captives of the Armenian side, and then began to abuse and falsify legal processes, and directly declare that only “terrorists and saboteurs” are being held in Azerbaijan. International humanitarian law prohibits such treatment. This obviously has signs of a war crime.
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia also considers it necessary to especially emphasize that in the post-war process, human rights or humanitarian issues, including the release and return of prisoners, must be ensured immediately after the cessation of hostilities and all this must be protected from political processes.
In accordance with international law, this prohibition applies in any case, regardless of whether it is enshrined in specific documents related to the conflict.
4, Absolutely unacceptable is the statement of the President of Azerbaijan that 20 days after the end of the war there can be no prisoners of war, thus calling the prisoners “saboteurs” or terrorists.
It is unacceptable to interpret the tripartite statement of 9 November as referring only to the situation before the signing of this statement.
First, both before and after the statement of 9 November, and also now we are dealing with an ongoing (unfinished) armed conflict: this rule follows directly from the requirements of international humanitarian law.
In addition, the statement of the President of Azerbaijan directly contradicts the intentions of the parties who signed the trilateral statement on 9 November, and the practice of its implementation.
In particular, proceeding from the requirement of paragraph 8 of this statement, the Republic of Armenia has already transferred to Azerbaijan two persons who have committed crimes in Artsakh, including those convicted of killing civilians.
On the same principle, Azerbaijan handed over to Armenia the Armenians formally convicted in this country. Armenia and Azerbaijan also handed over the prisoners detained after the tripartite statement of 9 November.
Thus, the said statement should apply to all situations both before and after 9 November, as long as there is an objective need to protect human rights and the humanitarian process in connection with the consequences of hostilities.
Therefore, it is fundamentally unacceptable to condition the presence of prisoners only on the date of the tripartite statement. I emphasize once again that, regardless of the date of capture, all servicemen and civilians of the Armenian side detained in Azerbaijan are prisoners of war by status.
5, The absolute urgency of the release of prisoners should also be viewed in the context of the policy of hatred against Armenians carried out in Azerbaijan, which has been repeatedly confirmed by reports published by the Armenian Human Rights Defender based on objective evidence.
6, Thus, it is absolutely reprehensible that the issue of the release and return of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan is clearly politicized, and the judicial processes are distorted and subject to abuse.
All of this grossly violates the humanitarian process and international requirements guaranteeing human rights. Therefore, they must be released without any preconditions and safely returned to Armenia.
7, Therefore, I draw the attention of the international community, and in particular international organizations with a mandate to protect human rights, to the aforementioned statement of the President of Azerbaijan, in order to exclude any violation of the humanitarian process and ensure its strict compliance with international human rights requirements.
