Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar.23
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
The so-called Court of Appeal of "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" does not have any legal status and any decision made by that court will not have any legal force, head of the press service of the ministry of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend during "This week in focus" program episode.
This is a direct violation of the Geneva conventions and international humanitarian law, Hajiyev said, speaking about the two Azerbaijanis Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who were taken hostage.
"Armenia directly bears the responsibility for this action," Hajiyev said. "And therefore our demand from the Armenian side is to abide by its commitments under the international humanitarian law and Geneva conventions, particularly to guarantee the release of our hostages."
Hajiyev said that Azerbaijan continues coordination and cooperation with international community on this issue, which has already been raised before Armenia by senior representatives of the co-chair countries of OSCE Minsk Group.
"But unfortunately we see complete disregard to the call of international community and international humanitarian law from the Armenian side," said Hajiyev.
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.
Afterwards, the so-called court in Nagorno-Karabakh 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 four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
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Aygun Badalova is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AygunBadalova