State Committee continues efforts for releasing Azerbaijani hostages

/By Azernews/

Gunay Camal

The state of Azerbaijan continues to work with international organizations for releasing its citizens Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev taken hostage by Armenian militaries.

Ismail Akhundov, the head of the working group of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, announced about this while addressing the hearings at the Azerbaijani Parliament on June 16.

The state commission has urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to multiply efforts for the immediate release of Asgarov and Guliyev, he said.

Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained Guliyev and Asgarov while they were attempting to visit the graves of their relatives in July 2014.

Guliyev and Asgarov have been judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of a separatist regime in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited “judicial process" in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.

Akhundov further stated that the commission also called on the ICRC to prepare and submit for consideration of the parties an agreement on return of captives and persons taken hostage in the short term, adding that the issue is being discussed with the ICRC.

Azerbaijan, whose over 4,000 citizens were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, has repeatedly declared its readiness to begin negotiations with Armenia in this direction.

A number of international organizations, as well as Baku, repeatedly urged Yerevan to start peaceful negotiations on this issue and to free the hostages, but, the Armenian side remained deaf. Furthermore, the Armenian side ignoring all calls and violating the international rules and norms was subjecting the hostages to various tortures.

Armenian aggression against its neighboring country resulted in occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. The large-scale hostilities resulted in death of over 20,000 Azerbaijanis while over 4,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the war. The majority of those captured during the hostilities are children, elderly people and women.

The Azerbaijani National Security Ministry’s documents earlier revealed that Armenian vandals have set up six women- and children- only internment camps: Vardenis children’s camp (250 occupancy), Razdan children's camp (180 occupancy), Khankendi (Stepanakert) children's camp (180), Gechashen women's camp (320), Jermuk women's camp (250) and Kalbajar women's camp (150).

The available data shows that Armenians have grossly violated the rules and provisions of the conventions on captives and hostages. They subjected hostages to brutal forms of tortures and forced them into hard labor.