“At the moment, we are talking about 120 confirmed cases, confirmed not by the Azerbaijani authorities, but by the evidence that we will be able to present to international institutions and courts” - said Siranush Sahakyan, the representative of Armenian prisoners’ interests in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said this in a conversation with "Azatutyun".
In her opinion, Azerbaijan is simply abusing the helpless situation of the Armenian authorities by talking about only 5 captives. Yesterday, the head of the state commission dealing with the prisoners of Azerbaijan announced that 5 Armenian prisoners are being held in Azerbaijan: 2 are military officers, 3 are civilians.
“Azerbaijan does not take the Armenian side seriously and violates agreements, knowing very well that Armenia and the Armenian authorities are in a helpless and defenseless state. They take advantage of the situation. Since they already received the individuals they want, and there are no unconditional special guarantees or factors that will pressure Azerbaijan, they take advantage of this opportunity to deprive the individuals of international legal protection.” - the lawyer noted, adding that Azerbaijan presents hundreds of captured Armenians as terrorist-criminals, trying to change the attitude of the international community as well.
“The international community has had a clear approach: Azerbaijan has shown hatred against Armenians and Azerbaijan has committed crimes against Armenian victims. Now they create a mirror image and mislead the international community. Under these conditions, the international community will show neutrality because it will point out that the same crimes are being committed on both sides," Siranush Sahakyan said.
According to Siranush Sahakyan, false accusations will be made against them, court cases will be staged, and as a result of all this, their return will be delayed. The short way, according to the lawyer, is a political solution to the problem: Azerbaijan, after all, violated the "all for all" agreement on the exchange of prisoners.
“Active political work should be carried out. We have a case in the past when a person was again presented as a criminal in the Azerbaijani press, and artificial criminal cases were initiated, but later he was part of the return. In this regard, I hope that they will use the fabricated criminal cases for other purposes, but thanks to the political work, the mentioned persons will also return to their homeland," said the lawyer.
After the signing of the tripartite statement, 74 reservists were captured in the positions of Khtsaberd-Hin Tagher villages of the Hadrut region. Azerbaijan now assigns them the status of criminals. Lawyers and the Armenian government have started a legal process in the European Court regarding this large group of prisoners. However, Azerbaijan leaves the applications received from the ECHR with no response.
The European Court has so far received applications from Armenia regarding more than 200 prisoners. Azerbaijan only provided confirmation for 10 prisoners that they are in Azerbaijan, and the lawyers expected that those 10 would soon be returned to Armenia. According to Siranush Sahakyan, if Azerbaijan is talking about only 5 Armenian prisoners, then they made the other 5 "criminals" as well.