Azerbaijan Confirms It Holds 17 Armenian Prisoners of War

The prisoners of war, who have been under Azerbaijani control since September 13, have had evidence presented on behalf of the government in the framework of interstate claims to the European Court. It should be noted that Azerbaijan does not always provide the information that the court has demanded. They present a lot of general information.

At this point, Azerbaijan has solely confirmed that it holds 17 Armenian prisoners of war. They have provided very general information about them, while the court required that more detailed information be provided, including medical documents regarding whether they have undergone medical examinations.

This type of behavior from Azerbaijan is not new to us. This was mentioned a short while ago by Diana Karazyan, Deputy Head of the Office of International Legal Issues, during a discussion on the theme "The Issue of Prisoners of War in the International Legal Arena":

“More than convincing evidence is being presented to the European Court that ultimately interim measures will be applied. In the subsequent processes following these interim measures, when interstate claims are submitted to the ECtHR, this fact will of course be documented and appropriate demands will be presented to the court regarding the violations of rights.”

“As for the video showing the execution of Armenian prisoners of war by Azerbaijani servicemen, work is currently underway. I want to emphasize that as of now, our office has focused its efforts on submitting requests to the court for urgent measures. The video shows that these people are simply being killed. Currently, regarding the interim measures as a separate demand, our legal tools do not allow us to present that, but this will definitely be used to raise the issue of the rights protection of Armenian prisoners of war once again at the ECtHR,” she added.