Int'l body expresses concern over Azerbaijani hostages’ fate

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

The International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea voiced concern over the fate of the Azerbaijani hostages.

The body released a statement on January 5 concerning illegal detention and sentencing of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who were captured by the Armenian forces last July, AzerTag news agency reported.

The text of the statement was sent to co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group and international organizations.

The International Fund expressed regret that the 2014 year was also fruitless in terms of the settlement of the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“As an organization closely following the settlement process of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, the International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea states with a sense of regret that the past 2014 year didn`t mark a breakthrough in the conflict settlement, which means that another year was wasted in overcoming the conflict`s known consequences including humanitarian ones,”the statement reads.

Concerning humanitarian aspects of the conflict, the International Fund deemed it necessary to draw international attention to a case, which happened in July of 2014 and became yet another evidence of how the human tragedy was exploited politically.

The International Fund reminded that three Azerbaijani civilians were exposed to various tortures, one of them (Hasan Hasanov) was murdered while the other two (Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev) were brought to an illegal trial in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Armenian special forces killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov and took hostage Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov in the Shaplar village of the occupied Kalbajar region on July 11. The civilians were visiting the graves of their relatives. The Armenians have put on trial on October 27 the two Azerbaijanis, who were captured in their native lands by the Armenian separatists.

Despite repeated calls by the international organizations and foreign countries on Armenia to return the captives back to their country, nothing has been made in this regard so far.

The International Fund further reminded that the UN Security Council in its Resolution 822 confirms that the occupied Kalbajar region is Azerbaijan’s territory and called for the withdrawal of all occupying forces from this and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Due to the ethnic cleansing of all Azerbaijani population, the Security Council in this resolution expressedits grave concern over the humanitarian emergency in the region, in particular in the Kalbajar region.

“More than 20 years after the occupation, Armenia continues to ignore this and other three Resolutions of the UN Security Council and its Armed Forces are still stationed in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including in Kalbajar. This is a demonstration of Armenia`s policy to consolidate the results of its illegal occupation. Over more than 20 years, Armenia did not allow anyone from the internally displaced Azerbaijani population to return back to their homes in these occupied territories,” the statement reads.

The international Fund stressed that the case of three Azerbaijani civilians once again attests how seriously fundamental human rights and freedoms and relevant provisions of the international humanitarian law are continuously violated.

“It should be stressed in this regard that freedom of movement as a fundamental freedom of human being is, to a certain degree, observed in other conflict zones, for instance, in the territory of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. However, Azerbaijanis, who were forcibly displaced from their homes in the course of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, are even denied their right to visit the graves of their ancestors in the occupied territories,” it said.

The Fund said Armenia`s actions with regard to the three Azerbaijani civilians resemble the policy of the Nazi Germany towards the peaceful population of the occupied territories.

“During the World War II (WWII), Nazis conducted military trials of civilians in the occupied territories. These trials were of purely formal character and had been implementing the verdicts issued beforehand by the Nazi leadership. Though Nazis in the WW II allowed the civilian population to continue living in the Nazi occupied territories, Armenia conducted ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and holds illegal trials to prevent the return of civilians to their homes,” the statement reads.

By observing and analyzing developments around Asgarov and Guliyev, the International Fund came to the conclusion that it is Armenia’s intentional policy to openly show inhuman and degrading dignity treatment of Azerbaijani hostages through Armenian mass media, to disseminate statements by Armenian officials attributed to the hostages and, finally, to conduct show “trials” for the hostages. “In the short term, by this way, Armenia tries to create additional tension in the region and to strengthen Azerbaijanophobia among its population and the Armenian community in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The fund said Armenia makes use of tension to complicate the peaceful negotiations, particularly when promising initiatives for the conflict settlement are put forward, such as, for instance, a proposal by French president to start drafting a comprehensive peace agreement.

“Armenia`s leadership strengthens Azerbaijanophobia with the aim of consolidation of the Armenian society in Armenia and the Armenian community in Nagorno-Karabakh around itself against the background of continuing socio-economic regress in Armenia, and consequently leading to difficulties it faces in supporting materially, financially and militarily its occupation regime in Nagorno-Karabakh. In light of the above-mentioned, it is clear that Armenia bears full responsibility for further tensions in the conflict zone,” the fund said.

It further expresseddeep concerns that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and authoritative international structures such as UN, EU and International Committee of the Red Cross that are engaged, to various extents, in the settlement process or dealing with humanitarian aspects of the conflict, do not undertake effective steps for liberation of the hostages.

The International Fund recalled that the UN Security Council’s four resolutions, adopted with respect to the conflict, emphasizes inadmissibility of use of force for acquisition of territory, while the UN General Assembly in its Resolution A/RES/62/243 (2008) reaffirms that no state shall recognize as lawful the situation resulting from the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories, nor render aid or assistance in maintaining this situation.

“This also implies that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - a structure directly dealing with settlement of the conflict on the basis of the mandate entrusted by the UN – bear particular responsibility for dissuading Armenia from committing illegal acts, including hostage-taking,” the Fund said.

The International Fund called on the OSCE, UN, EU, Council of Europe and ICRS, to undertake effective measures in accordance with their competences and mandates for liberation of the Azerbaijani hostages.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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