Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 1
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
Armenians are brutally torturing Azerbaijani prisoners and hostages, Azerbaijan’s military prosecutor Khanlar Valiyev said at a meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Azerbaijani State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.
He noted that during the investigation carried out on a criminal case regarding the crimes committed by the Armenian armed forces and illegal armed formations in Nagorno-Karabakh, it was established that Armenian nationalists with particular cruelty killed thousands of Azerbaijanis only because of their national identity in Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent areas, that is, in the Azerbaijani lands.
Hundreds of Azerbaijanis, who tried to escape, were shot, their houses were looted, national architecture monuments were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were deported from their homes, civilians and servicemen of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, serving in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas, as well as in the territories bordering Armenia, were taken hostage - the hostages were subjected to brutal, inhuman treatment and tortures, he added.
“For the comprehensive investigation of these crimes, the identification of the perpetrators, the collection of evidence and bringing the perpetrators to investigation, cooperation was established between the investigating body and Azerbaijan’s State Commission,” he said. “Thus, 1,636 persons testified on the criminal case and, according to the information of the State Commission as of October 23, 2018, out of 1,480 prisoners and hostages who were subsequently released, 1,113 people were interrogated, and 1,057 of them were recognized as victims.”
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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.