Azerbaijan's Military Prosecutor's Office: "We fight not against Armenians but against military criminals"

-How does the investigation of crimes, committed by Armenians in Khojaly, proceed?

-The case on the said fact was closed in March of 1994 due to impossibility to reveal persons who committed the said crime. Yet we restarted the said case after the Constitutional law was adopted and re-qualified it into genocide in line with article 103 of the Criminal Code. After we started to regard these events on basis of the existing materials of the case and collected evidences as an international crime, as all objective data give us grounds to say like that.

We have repeatedly appealed to our colleagues to Russian prosecutor's office in Moscow in connection with this case. We have helped us in most issues, sent materials of the criminal case. We collected other evidences, started to question witnesses, held expertise, that is started to conduct procedure actions. Today, we have already presented accusations to 37 persons on facts of crimes in Khojaly. All these people are direct executers, who killed, attacked children, women and elderly people. Among them, there were servicemen of the well-known 366th division.

The evidences regarding the said 37 people were contained in the initial materials of the case. We have managed to reveal them on basis of witnesses of people who managed to survive in this hell.

Today, we base on the norms of international law, which allow us to hold such kinds of investigation. On the other hand, the European convention and European Court are, as we think, guarantors of our application of norms of international law, our responsibility as a state, which is bound to prevent such crimes and gives the right to those persons, whom we brought to criminal responsibility, to appeal to the European Court.

I would repeat that the international convention demands from us to investigate such a case. Moreover, the state is bound to cooperate with other states in the resolution of this issue.

-Does the list of these 37 people contain persons, who led the separatist movement in Karabakh?

-I want the community not to confuse these two categories: separatist leaders and criminals. We do not pursue people who think differently, we pursue those who are criminals in the framework of international criminal law. The convention is fixing these two concepts separately.

-However, the former president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan stated openly that he is proud of having participated in the liberation of Shusha.

-We have not yet given legal assessment to whether he has participated or not. This is quite a different question. We consider the question from the point of view of international criminal law. Of course, if evidences proving participation of Kocharyan or any other person in this crimes are collected, they will be brought to responsibility. For bringing this or that person to a criminal responsibility, we can not adhere to emotions or any unchecked information.

I would like to stress the role of European Court in this issue. The European legal area, whom Azerbaijan is an element to and by the way Armenia, is quite a new element for us, which lays responsibility on officials and law enforcement bodies. In this case we can only speak about law.

-Anyway, following the recent elections in Armenia, the list of the so-called "Karabakh clan" included those who fight against Azerbaijan with guns in their hands. This is the currently president of the country S.Sarkissyan, Minister of Defense Oganyan and others. Does the military prosecutor's office have any facts regarding these people, which prove that they committed crimes against the Azerbaijani people?

-First of all, to elect a president is a business of people. I think the opinion of the Azerbaijani people appeared during the elections. As we see, not everyone supports the aggressive policy of the country's leadership, as there are many people, who adhere to democratic principles.

Anyway, we will have to live with Armenians and those Armenians, who lived and live in Nagorno Karabakh are our citizens and we are responsible for ensuring their rights.

We fight not against Armenians. We fight against military criminals.

-What can you say about investigation of crimes, connected with brutal attitude to Azerbaijani citizens, captured during the Karabakh conflict?

-29 people were brought to responsibility on this fact. These were Armenian natives who violated norms of humanitarian law, that is those who took direct part in tortures. Such crimes were committed against at least 1378 Azerbaijani citizens whom we managed to free from captivity.

/Day.Az/