Azerbaijan`s Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) Sabina Aliyeva has addressed an appeal to the relevant international and regional organizations calling on them to take into account the issue of ensuring the rights of Azerbaijani servicemen detained by Armenia within their mandate.
The appeal requested to investigate the videos and photos published in the Armenian media regarding the inhuman treatment of the soldier of the Azerbaijani armed forces, noting that the Ombudsman sent a letter to the headquarters and the Baku Office of the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding this issue.
The appeal also made reference to the statement of the Ombudsman of Armenia, who visited the Azerbaijani servicemen the other day, that they had no complaints about torture or ill-treatment. It was also emphasized that this untruthful statement made by the Armenian Ombudsman Institute, intended to conceal the committed legal infractions, as evidenced by the images and video recordings showing the Azerbaijani soldier being subjected to brutality, is cause for concern. For this reason, the Azerbaijani Ombudsperson insisted that the relevant international and regional organizations promptly respond to those violations of the law within their mandate.
It was also underlined that the Ombudsperson and her National Preventive Group visited the Armenian prisoners of war during the Second Karabakh war, as well as the members of the Armenian armed terror-sabotage groups detained in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories in the aftermath of the war, and issued numerous press statements in this regard.
The appeal also noted that in addition to these actions, which were committed in serious violation of the norms and principles of international law and international humanitarian law, the fact of insulting the flag of Azerbaijan at the European Weightlifting Championship these days was also the result of Armenia’s widely propagated policy of hatred against Azerbaijan.
In conclusion, the Ombudsperson urged those institutions to provide support for Azerbaijani servicemen to communicate with their family members through video calls and to ensure their safe return to their homeland.