YEREVAN, Armenia, Jan 25 (IPS) – On July 29, 2023, Vagif Khachatryan, a 68-year-old Armenian retiree, awakened early in Nagorno Karabakh —a self-proclaimed republic within the Caucasus area—to journey to Armenia. He wanted to endure delicate coronary heart surgical procedure.
Regardless of the urgent medical emergency, it was not a straightforward determination. The one street that linked Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the remainder of the world had been reduce off for seven months by the Azerbaijani military. Even when he was travelling in an Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross automobile, Khachatryan knew he might face bother.
He was arrested that day by the Azerbaijani border guard service. 4 months later, a navy court docket in Baku handed him a 15-year sentence for crimes allegedly dedicated throughout a conflict fought greater than 30 years in the past.
Vagif Khachatryan is one more sufferer of a battle that has its roots within the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Armenians remained the bulk in Nagorno-Karabakh, however the enclave was formally on the territory of the new child Republic of Azerbaijan.
A conflict was already unravelling in Karabakh. The Armenian victory additionally led to the forcible displacement of tons of of hundreds of Azerbaijanis. In September 2020, the latter launched an offensive by which they took over two-thirds of the territory underneath Armenian management.
However there have been nonetheless greater than 100,000 Armenians left.
In December 2022, Baku blocked the one street connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the remainder of the world, depriving its inhabitants of essentially the most primary provides together with meals and medicines. It was that lack of medical help that pushed Vagif Khachatryan to his destiny seven months later.
With Khachatryan already in jail, the blockade on Nagorno Karabakh was lifted in September 2023 within the wake of a brand new Azeri assault. The street was opened in order that the Armenians remaining within the enclave fled en masse to Armenia.
Senior worldwide our bodies just like the European Union Parliament accused Azerbaijan of finishing up “ethnic cleaning” in opposition to the Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh. Right this moment, Karabakhis are restarting from scratch in Armenia, the Khachatryans amongst these.
“The truth that my father has a coronary heart illness offers me hope that he won’t be tortured in Azerbaijani custody,” Vera Khachatryan instructed IPS by phone from Jermuk, 170 kilometres southeast of Yerevan.
Her father’s arrest, she stated, has additionally had an affect on her mom. “She suffers from new well being and psychological issues which solely add to these derived from compelled displacement,” defined the displaced lady.
On September 28, Karabaj authorities issued a decree dissolving the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh Republic as of January 1, 2024.
Secrecy
On December 13, 2023, a prisoner alternate passed off: Azerbaijan launched 32 Armenian troopers in alternate for the final two Azerbaijani troopers underneath Armenian custody. Armenia’s help for Azerbaijan to host the United Nations Local weather Summit in Baku was additionally a part of the deal.
Each side described it as “an indication of goodwill.”
“Azerbaijan makes use of the prisoners´ subject as a political instrument to place stress on Armenia or to acquire one thing in return,” Siranush Sahakyan, consultant of the Armenian prisoners’ pursuits on the European Court docket of Human Rights instructed IPS by cellphone.
“No repatriation carried out by Baku aside from the prisoner swap was held underneath an amnesty or another authorized process,” confused Sahakyan.
Armenia claims that greater than 100 prisoners of conflict and civilians stay in Azerbaijan, together with three former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh, the speaker of parliament and members of the cupboard. Baku says the full variety of Armenian prisoners in its custody is 23.
Apart from the contradicting figures, their state additionally poses a serious supply of concern. In a March 2021 report, Human Rights Watch denounced that the Armenian prisoners of conflict suffered abuse in Azerbaijani custody and known as on Baku to launch “all remaining prisoners of conflict and civilians.”
Confronted with Baku’s inaction, Yerevan appealed to the European Court docket of Human Rights (ECHR).
“Azerbaijan is obliged to submit a report on arbitrarily detained senior officers to the ECHR earlier than the tip of January 2024,” Hasmik Samvelyan, spokesperson for the Armenian Illustration for Worldwide Authorized Affairs, reminded IPS in a phone dialog.
In the interim, the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross is the one impartial physique that has entry to Armenian prisoners.
“Our representatives have visited all of the captives detained in Baku and checked the circumstances by which they’re held,” Zara Amatuni, ICRC communications officer in Armenia, instructed IPS by phone.
A number of of the prisoners’ family confirmed to IPS that they’d the chance to talk with them. The ICRC mediates to facilitate communication by phone each 30 to 40 days. The organisation prevented giving extra particulars after interesting to the significance of confidentiality.
“We current our observations solely to the competent authorities,” the ICRC press officer confused to IPS.
Repatriated prisoners have additionally constantly refused to speak to journalists in regards to the circumstances of their imprisonment, and that´s additionally the Armenian state´s coverage. Many see it as a option to keep away from triggering a response from Azerbaijan that would worsen the imprisonment circumstances.
Ready for justice
Throughout a world discussion board on the way forward for Nagorno Karabakh held on December 6 in Baku, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev declared that the Armenian prisoners “are ready for Azerbaijani justice to rule.”
The current wave of repression in opposition to the media and any voice essential of the Authorities doesn’t invite hope. Final December, Amnesty Worldwidedenounced the arrests of at the very least six impartial Azerbaijani journalists in only one month on “fabricated” expenses.
In its newest world freedom report, the Freedom Home claimed Azerbaijan is among the 57 nations labeled as “not free” out of the 159 studied. The Washington-based NGO denounced “quite a few arbitrary arrests and detentions”. It additionally described Azerbaijan’s judiciary as “corrupt and subordinate to the chief.”
One other of these ready for Azerbaijani justice to rule is Vicken Euljeckjian. This Lebanese who additionally has Armenian nationality was captured together with Maral Najarian —one other Lebanese Armenian— by Azerbaijani troopers whereas driving from Yerevan to Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10, 2020, a day after the Russian-brokered ceasefire was introduced.
4 months after their arrest, Beirut secured Najarian´s launch, however not Euljeckjian´s. The latter was sentenced to twenty years in jail in June 2021. His identify, nevertheless, appeared on the checklist of prisoners to be swapped on December 13, 2023, however a last-minute shock prevented it.
“After three years of separation, ache and despair, we have been very excited to listen to that he would lastly be launched. All of a sudden, his identify was changed with that of one other prisoner three hours earlier than the alternate,” Vicken´s spouse Linda Euljeckjian recalled to IPS by cellphone from Beirut.
Hoping to ease the method, Linda and her daughter travelled to Yerevan to satisfy with Armenian officers. However the latter might do little, so the household additionally approached senior Lebanese officers.
“After stress from the native media, the Lebanese authorities seems to be considering discussing the problem of my husband’s repatriation with Azerbaijani officers,” stated Linda.
Whereas she waits for the discharge of her husband, the problem of Armenian prisoners of conflict and civilians in Azerbaijan stays amongst these to be settled in a battle inherited from the twentieth century.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
