Dispute Over Prisoners of War with Azerbaijan to be Raised at the ECHR, Says Zeynalyan

“We insist that those in Azerbaijan are prisoners of war. We have a dispute with Azerbaijan in the European Court regarding this matter, and the court will decide how to resolve it,” said human rights defender Artak Zeynalyan in an interview with "Factinfo," referring to the statement made by the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister who claimed that the issue of prisoners of war has been resolved.

According to Artak Zeynalyan, political efforts must also be made in this direction so that Azerbaijan fulfills the requirements of the Geneva Convention and returns individuals under its authority. He noted that when Azerbaijan became a member of the Council of Europe, it assumed the obligation to comply with the court rulings of the European Court. “Now the oversight of the implementation of these court rulings falls under the Committee of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe. Under the influence of our pressures, the European Court has adequately assessed these and sent the case to the Committee of Ministers for supervision. There will soon be a meeting of the Committee of Ministers, where this issue will be raised,” emphasized Zeynalyan.

He pointed out that Azerbaijan has accepted the fact that over 70 individuals are in their custody, while there is a dispute regarding other prisoners of war with the Azerbaijani side. Zeynalyan reiterated that, from the perspective of the Geneva Convention, individuals under the authority of the Azerbaijani government are considered prisoners of war and, from the perspective of the European Convention, they are considered unlawfully deprived of liberty.

It is noteworthy that yesterday it was announced that a group of prisoners of war was set to return to Armenia; however, the only person who landed in the plane that arrived in Armenia was Rustam Muradov, without any prisoners. Subsequently, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stated that the issue of returning prisoners of war is resolved and closed. “We have returned over 70 prisoners of war to the Armenian side. For a soldier to be considered a prisoner of war, they must be captured during military operations. Those who were apprehended during anti-terror operations after November 9 should be called terrorists, but never prisoners of war,” declared the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister.

Today, the Armenian side, represented by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission Andranik Kocharyan, insisted that Muradov had gone to Baku to accompany the prisoners of war, while Muradov regarded this information as provocative, stating that the return of prisoners was not planned for April 8.