BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 10
By Humay Aghajanova - Trend:
The letter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres dated March 2, 2022, on the discovery of a mass grave in the liberated from Armenian occupation village of Edilli in Azerbaijan’s Khojavend region and in the city of Fuzuli was distributed as a document of the General Assembly and the UN Security Council, Trend reports.
The letter once again brings to attention the need to clarify the fate of about 4,000 Azerbaijanis who went missing during the First Karabakh War, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stated.
Mass graves were discovered as a result of the search and investigation measures carried out on the basis of the testimony of witnesses in the liberated village of Edilli in the Khojavend region of Azerbaijan and in the city of Fuzuli, the ministry noted.
The remains of the bodies, allegedly belonging to 6 or 7 Azerbaijanis who went missing in the 1990s, were exhumed by the investigation team for the purpose of conducting a medical-genetic study.
Citizens of Azerbaijan and military personnel who were in Armenian captivity noted in their testimony that the corpses of dozens of Azerbaijanis were subjected to desecration, insults, inhuman treatment, were transported in military trucks, and buried in the above-mentioned territory.
Relevant government authorities, based on the testimony of witnesses and other search materials, suggest that the remains of the discovered bodies belong to only a small part of the people buried in the marked area, and the search for other burial places is currently ongoing.
Azerbaijanis in captivity were forced to be taken out, killed, and buried, which in itself testifies to the cruelty and mercilessness of the crimes committed by the armed forces of Armenia and their henchmen, the minister brought to the attention.
The criminals committed the murders of dozens of people in captivity, using brutal actions and torture against them, thereby committing serious war crimes.
This is a gross violation of the norms of international Humanitarian Law (IHL) related to the decent burial of corpses during conflicts, with respect for graves, etc.
Against the background of such growing evidence, the perpetrators continue to go unpunished, since Armenia has not yet taken any steps to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by its agents and henchmen, the ministry emphasized.
Official Yerevan is trying to evade cooperation in providing information on burials, mass graves, or any other similar information that will help find out the fate of the missing Azerbaijanis despite repeated calls from Azerbaijan and discussions held with the Armenian side, including at the highest level.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov highlighted the importance of clarifying the fate of missing persons both from the point of view of the rule of law and justice, and the normalization of post-conflict relations, and also noted the important role of the international community in this matter.
The letter calls on the UN Secretary-General to force Armenia to provide all the information it has in order to clarify the fate of thousands of Azerbaijanis who went missing in the early 1990s.