One video shows a struggling, shirtless male civilian held down by a group of Azerbaijani soldiers before being decapitated with a knife as onlookers clap and cheer. The victim’s head is placed on the nearby carcass of a pig as a soldier says in Azerbaijani: “This is how we take revenge for the blood of our martyrs.”
In another incident, two Azerbaijani soldiers pin down an older man in civilian clothes who begs for his life before his throat is cut. Separately, a captive Armenian serviceman is forced to say “Karabakh is Azerbaijan,” before his dead body is seen impaled on a wooden stick.
Desperate relatives of missing soldiers last month marched on Armenia’s defense ministry to demand information. As they gathered outside, one father said he had not heard from his wounded son since the start of October 2020, less than a week into the war.
“We don’t know his location, his status—we don’t know anything,” he said. “We’ve asked everywhere. … They’re not telling us anything.”
As cold fog enveloped the rally, one woman shouted: “Why don’t they just come out and tell us what we have to do to get our kids back? We’ll spend our own money to bring them home.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan’s agreement to an “all for all” POW exchange has prompted some hope. By the end of last month, 56 Armenian and 16 Azerbaijani captives had returned home, ending the nightmare endured by their families. Yet an unknown number of POWs are still behind bars. Armenian officials say Azerbaijan is holding more than 100 Armenian military personnel and civilians, reportedly far more than the number of Azerbaijani prisoners in Armenian custody. Hundreds more remain missing.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which acts as a neutral intermediary and monitors the treatment of prisoners, said that it had visited dozens of POWs and logged hundreds of tracing requests for both civilians and soldiers, but it declined to disclose precisely how many detainees it had registered.
As war-crime videos have continued to surface, Azerbaijan last month arrested two of its soldiers accused of mutilations and called on Armenia to take similar steps—though the integrity of its investigations are doubtful. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s coterie maintain a firm grip on the country’s criminal justice system, in which torture and impunity for the perpetrators of such abuse are endemic. But justice will be a bedrock for any sustainable peace, said Arman Tatoyan, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman.
“Impunity leads to more torture,” said Tatoyan, whose office has prepared several reports documenting torture and inhumane treatment of Armenian POWs. “Impunity is a very dangerous thing.”
Others see forgetting as the foundation of any future peace. Ahmad Shahidov, who runs the Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights in Baku, caused outrage last month with a provocative tweet that implied Armenian people were “a disease”—a post later deleted by Twitter for violating its rules against “hateful conduct.” He also praised the use of a “military solution” to the dispute and called for “a new war” to create a buffer zone.
Shahidov now says he was wrong to use such vitriolic language, but he has since repeated it and held it up as a consequence of what he deemed “Armenian terrorism.” Peace in the region, he argued, could only be achieved through a process of collective amnesia, rather than accountability.
“If we start talking about justice, Azerbaijan has a lot to talk to Armenia about,” said Shahidov, citing 1992’s brutal massacre of hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians in the town of Khojaly. “If we want to live together in the future, we must forget these negative cases. If we think and talk about these negative cases that happened on both sides, we will never get peace. Let’s start everything from zero—it’s a better solution.”
Starting from zero might be hard amid the flood of disturbing videos of torture and atrocities.
“Social media is full of violent scenes,” Tatoyan said. “Even among our children it has already taken effect. All of the time they’re talking about violence, killing, torture. Torture generates hatred. It is very dangerous in terms of living together in this region as two nations.”
Almost two months after the cease-fire, distrust and hostility remain high. Several skirmishes have broken out in recent weeks, causing casualties and straining Moscow’s peace deal. Aliyev’s comment on the recent capture of over 60 Armenian soldiers—“They cannot be considered prisoners of war; they are terrorists”—risks stalling POW swaps.
Mourners gather at Yerablur Military Memorial Cemetery on Nov. 30, 2020, for the funeral of Avetis Avetisyan, an Armenian soldier who was killed by an artillery attack in Nagorno-Karabakh. JACK LOSH FOR FOREIGN POLICY
For now, there are bodies to count and bodies to bury. Back in the Yerablur military cemetery, the men finished laying Avetisyan to rest. “We miss him terribly,” said Arman, one of the mourners, who asked not to give his last name. “He was a close friend. Everyone here has been touched by the war. My son’s friend is still missing in action. We don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”
Flowers were placed, and the men turned to depart. Across the hillside of headstones, more bereaved families were already arriving.
Jack Losh is a journalist, photographer and filmmaker covering conservation, humanitarian issues and traditional cultures, often in areas of conflict and crisis. Twitter: @jacklosh
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/armenia-loss-nagorno-karabakh-azerbaijan-horrors-of-war/?fbclid=IwAR3JUyZNOc08F45VloX3BC1otDRC1mlQSwsAzxfzPd_WOmzx_B_mpgmUtHo