ArmInfo.The Human Rights Defender of Armenia decisively declares that all servicemen and civilians of the Armenian side detained in Azerbaijan are prisoners by status. The Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan wrote about this on his Facebook page, commenting on the statement of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the conduct of an anti-terrorist operation, as a result of which more than 60 terrorists were arrested.
The Azerbaijani leader stressed that there can be no prisoners of war after 20 days of the end of the war.
“The credible evidence gathered by the Office of the Human Rights Defender confirms that the number of those taken prisoner is higher 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 recorded many cases when, despite cases confirmed by video recordings and other evidence, the Azerbaijani authorities deny the presence of persons with them or delay the approval process, ”the statement said.
Tatoyan stressed that the initiation of criminal prosecution processes against the captives of the Armenian side held in Azerbaijan, their detention, and even more so calling them "terrorists" or "saboteurs" are gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights in general.
Tatoyan stressed that it is absolutely reprehensible that the issue of the release and return of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan is clearly politicized, and the trials are distorted and subject to abuse.
“All this grossly violates the humanitarian process and guarantees human rights, international requirements. Therefore, they must be released without any preconditions and safely returned to Armenia, ”he wrote.
Based on the above, the Ombudsman of Armenia called on 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.