ArmInfo.27 lawmaker of the Spanish Congress, 13 members of the Senate, as well as more than 60 members of parliaments of various autonomous communities and city councils are asking the Spanish government to intervene in the immediate release of all Armenian prisoners of war.
As reported by the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the text of the statement notes that 6 months after the signing of the trilateral ceasefire statement of November 9, 2020, the Baku regime continues to fail to fulfill one of the key provisions of this document - namely, to release prisoners of war.
"According to the data received, more than 200 prisoners of war are in Azerbaijani captivity. At a press conference on February 26, President Ilham Aliyev said that he considered them terrorists, since they were captured after November 9. But the reality is that then the servicemen were under siege in Hadrut. This unit was besieged by jihadist mercenaries and the Azerbaijani-Turkish armed forces, but was not captured at the time of the signing of the agreement. This gross violation of the agreement once again testifies that the President of Azerbaijan does not fulfill his obligations. His priority is hatred of the Armenians, on whom he promised to "hunt like dogs," "the statement emphasizes, adding that the aggression of Azerbaijan and its allies against Artsakh led to the deaths of more than 3.5 thousand 20-year-old soldiers, while tens of thousands of people became refugees, forced immigrants.
The statement also draws attention to these facts, which destroy the hope of the Armenian people for a return to normal life, in their historical territories 106 years after the Armenian Genocide.
"During this conflict, Azerbaijan committed various war crimes. There are many videos where we see executions of Armenian prisoners of war, civilians, and inhuman torture, even torture of corpses. Considering all this, one can be horrified at the treatment of those who are currently under the yoke of this oil dictatorship, "the statement says, recalling that Azerbaijan is among the most authoritarian states in the world, where flagrant violations of human rights have been recorded.
The statement expresses regret over the fact that the OSCE Minsk Group was unable to prevent the war or protect its victims. "But it had to at least enforce the humanitarian clause of the ceasefire agreement. Compliance with this clause is a precondition for a negotiated final peace. The law must prevail over violence in the region, which cannot be abandoned in the face of barbarism and totalitarianism. In connection with the aforementioned circumstances, we, the undersigned, ask the Spanish government to use all its power, international influence, to free the Armenian prisoners of war," the appeal says.