AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Jan 30 2015

Azerbaijan appeals ECHR over Armenia-captured hostages

30 January 2015, 18:34 (GMT+04:00)
By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Azerbaijan delivered a letter of appeal to the European Court of Human
Rights over the fate of Dilgam Asgarov, Shahbaz Guliyev and Hasan
Hasanov, Azerbaijanis taken hostage by Armenia.

Violation of rights of the Azerbaijani hostages was outlined in the
letter, Anar Bagirov, Head of the Center for Legal Reforms of
Azerbaijan, said at the press-conference on January 30.

“Photos and other proofs reflecting Armenia’s inhuman treatments of
the hostages were attached to the letter, as well,” Bagirov said.

The ECHR has already received the letter and will reply it soon.

The Armenian special forces took hostage Hasan Hasanov, Shahbaz
Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov in the Shaplar village of the occupied
Kalbajar region on July 11 last year, while they were visiting the
graves of their relatives.

Following the show trial in Nagorno-Karabakh Dilgam Asgarov was
sentenced to life imprisonment, while Shahbaz Guliyev was sentenced to
22 years in jail.

One of the hostages, Hasan Hasanov, was killed before he was taken to
the so-called “court” in Nagorno -Karabakh.

The international community is persistently urging the Armenian
authorities to return the hostages to Azerbaijan.

Baroness Anelay of St John’s, British Minister of State of the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office, recently said the British government didn’t
recognize the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” and its “court”.

Meanwhile, Aurelia Grigoriu, a Moldovan ombudsman, expressed her
readiness to make her all-out efforts to raise awareness among the
European human rights defenders over the issue of Azerbaijani
hostages.

Armenia is still turning down the calls from the international
community to hand over the hostages to Azerbaijan.

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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.