Baku's Practices of Not Returning Armenian Prisoners of War Considered Terroristic, Says Ani Samsonyan at the OSCE PA

At the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Human Rights Committee, Ani Samsonyan, a member of the Armenian delegation and a parliamentarian from the LHK faction, delivered a speech in which she stated:

“As you know, on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey and involving mercenaries brought from Syria, launched an aggressive attack on Artsakh. After a war lasting about 44 days, a ceasefire was declared with a trilateral statement signed between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia on November 9. Armenia has fully complied with all obligations stipulated in the agreement concerning itself.

According to one of the provisions of the declaration, Armenia and Azerbaijan have committed to exchanging prisoners of war and other detained persons. Even if this point were not included in the agreement, under international humanitarian law—the Geneva Convention III—prisoners of war should be released and repatriated immediately after hostilities cease.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had also agreed to exchange prisoners of war based on the principle of “all for all.” However, Azerbaijan not only artificially prolonged this process but also attacked two villages in the Hadrut region under the control of Armenian forces after the war, capturing another 64 Armenian soldiers. Furthermore, criminal cases were initiated against them in Azerbaijan to present them as terrorists and punish them.

It should be noted that the issue of the repatriation of prisoners of war is exclusively a matter of international humanitarian law, which Azerbaijan is politicizing in order to exert continuous pressure on Armenia, thus benefiting from a violation of international law. We characterize this behavior by official Baku as terroristic.

Azerbaijan has yet to confirm how many Armenian prisoners of war are in their custody and for how many lives they bear responsibility. Given the high level of ethnic hatred and anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan, we cannot be at ease regarding the life and health of our prisoners of war, fearing they may be beaten, tortured, or harmed simply for being Armenian. There are numerous videos and evidence of the mistreatment of Armenians by Azerbaijanis.

Dear colleagues, the abuse of this humanitarian process must be severely criticized by international institutions and the public. The OSCE PA member state Azerbaijan must be compelled to return all Armenian prisoners of war. Otherwise, we consider Azerbaijan a terrorist country that holds prisoners of war as hostages in order to constantly extort concessions for their return.”