HEAD OF WORKING GROUP OF ARMENIAN STATE COMMISSION FOR POWS, HOSTAGES AND THE MISSING TO COMPLAIN TO ICRC FOR PUBLICATION OF CONFIDENTIAL LETTER BY POW IN AZERBAIJANI PRESS
ArmInfo
2008-12-23 14:17:00
Armen Kaprielyan, the Head of the Working Group of the Armenian State
Commission for POWs, Hostages and the Missing is going complain to the
ICRC for publication of a confidential letter by Azerbaijani soldier
Rafig Hasanov in the Azerbaijani press. R. Hasanov is currently in the
Armenian territory. A. Kaprielyan told ArmInfo of his intention when
commenting on the publication of the above letter by Azerbaijani APA
agency and the comments by an anonymous military expert. An interview
with R. Hasanov was published earlier wherein he declared that he
had crossed the boundary consciously and had no intention to return
to his motherland.
‘Nonsense and regular provocation. Indeed the Azerbaijani party was
to respond to developments with Rafig Hasanov somehow… Referring
to anonymous expert, a certain mister X, one can write everything
and everywhere. The author of the idea had probably pined hopes with
public response forgetting about the content of this propagandist
nonsense. The last chapter containing ‘the conclusion’ of the secret
military agent was just silly. In response, I’d like to say that public
and international organizations dealing with humanitarian issues
are well aware how POWs are treated here in Armenia and how they
are treated in Azerbaijan. I can mention four Azerbaijani soldiers
who had crossed the boundary voluntarily because of humiliating
treatment of juniors over the last two years: Vusal Garakayev,
Eldaniz Nuriyev, Samir Mamedov and now Rafig Hasanov. I can imagine
the faces of some Azerbaijani officials who were informed that another
Azerbaijani soldier purposefully deserted to the Armenian party and
refused returning to his motherland. The developments with Mamedov
had an effect of a ‘red rag’. After Mamedov’s leaving for a third
country, Azerbaijanis do their best to give us an adequate, as they
think, response by launching a large-scale information war through
elementary lie, misinformation and sometimes even an open blackmail’,
A. Kaprielyan said. He mentioned that once Azerbaijan tried to
present Armenian hostages Valery Suleymanov and Hambatsoum Asatryan
as deserters. ‘To persuade us that our soldiers refuse to return to
Armenia, they resorted to any methods to influence on the POWs, even
Azerbaijani national security agents visited H. Asatryan presenting
themselves as ICRC officers’, he said. But they failed regarding
these two and the Azerbaijani party started inventing a fairy tale
around Paruyr Simonyan. But this was not enough for them and they are
trying to shuffle their sins on us, allegedly we torture our prisoners
of war and make them not to return to their native land. All this is
barefaced lie. But we cannot wait for something more clever from the
relevant authorities of our neighboring state. Instead of irradiation
of the reason of wilful transferring of their soldier to our side,
i.e. establishing order in their army, they are going ‘to fight’
the results of this lawlessness, trying to blame us for the broken
destiny of these soldiers’, – Kaprielyan said. He also emphasized that
ICRC delegations visited Ragif Gasanov many times: ‘It is no secret
that this boy is kept in the conditions which fully meet the norms
of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law’.
‘As for the letter, the scanned copy of which was published in the
article, even if this document really exists and its text is authentic
to the original, I wonder how the letter, written at the form with
an official label of ICRC and considered confidential, appeared in
the hands of Azerbaijani journalists. For this reason I am going to
immediately apply to the local office of ICRC’, – Kaprielyan said.