Hartford Courant Reports on Torture of Armenian Prisoners of War in Azerbaijan

The ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh has become a continuation of Baku's anti-Armenian policies, as evidenced by the brutal torture of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijani jails, writes the American newspaper Hartford Courant.

According to the report, Azerbaijani forces kidnapped Melis in Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2020 and tortured him for 10 months, subjecting him to starvation and forcing him to chant "Karabakh is Azerbaijan" and "Glory to the President of Azerbaijan." This information was provided by the Human Rights University Network (UNHR) in an interview with the prisoner.

The article's author, Thomas Becker, Director of Human Rights and Political Affairs at the UN, noted that Melis returned from captivity with the help of the Red Cross but in an unrecognizable state due to the torture.

The UN Human Rights Office has interviewed 150 individuals who suffered from torture in Azerbaijan over the past three years, with many stating that "the path for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh has been paved over the years." Becker's team, which gathers information on the victims of Azerbaijani violence, includes lawyers, scholars, and students from Harvard, Oxford, Wesleyan, California, and Yale universities.

In a report titled "We Are Nobody. How Three Years of Atrocities Against Ethnic Armenians Led to Ethnic Cleansing," they have collected information on the phases of Baku's aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Becker warned that, given the indifference of the international community, Baku's crimes against humanity could be repeated in the territory of Armenia. "If we do not expose and take account of these recent failures, we will inevitably see them again, perhaps in southern Armenia—the next target declared by Azerbaijan," he concluded.

On September 19, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale offensive against the Republic of Artsakh. According to the latest data from the Prosecutor General's Office, more than 200 people were killed, over 300 injured, 16 were taken captive, 14 tortured, and 42 are missing. Recently, it was reported that 100,632 citizens forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh have arrived in Armenia.