Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.13
By Anakhanim Hidayatova - Trend:
Members of European Parliament from 24 European nations have signed a motion calling for two Azerbaijanis - Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev - "convicted" in Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh to be given a fair trial, a message posted on the website of PR Newswire company said.
The motion calling for a fair trial for Asgarov and Guliyev under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights was signed by 46 MPs, including those from Ireland, Spain, Italy, Finland, Ukraine and Croatia.
The two Azerbaijanis, Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov and Azerbaijani citizen Shahbaz Guliyev, were "convicted" in the "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" which is not a signatory to any international treaties and guarantees neither human rights nor the rule of law, according to the published message.
The motion was tabled on February 5 by Azerbaijani PACE delegate Elkhan Suleymanov.
During an operation in the Shaplar village of Azerbaijan's occupied Kalbajar district on July 11, 2014 Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained two other Azerbaijanis, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov. A criminal case was filed against them.
Earlier, "the court" sentenced Asgarov to life imprisonment and Guliyev - to 22 years in prison.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by SI