Over 4,000 Azerbaijanis, who went missing in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, are being kept illegally and they have been subjected to various tortures, said Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov.
He made the remarks as part of presentation of the fourth periodic report of Azerbaijan on ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’, during the 56th Session of the UN Committee against Torture, held Nov. 11-12 in Geneva, said Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry.
Khalafov in particular said that two Azerbaijanis – Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev – taken hostages in July 2014 by Armenia, have been subjected to tortures and inhuman treatment.
During an operation in the Shaplar village of Azerbaijan’s occupied Kalbajar district on July 11, 2014 Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained two other Azerbaijanis, Guliyev and Asgarov. A "criminal case" was filed against them.
Khalafov spoke further, noting Armenia’s military aggression, and reminding that Armenia still continues the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory.
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 the UN Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Trend