Agayev: Tatoyan Is Wrong

Baku/02.01.20/Baku: Turan: "Armenian prisoners of war should be returned to Armenia. This should be done immediately and without any preconditions. They are prisoners of war by status," Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook page.

In his opinion, the statement of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that many Armenian soldiers were arrested after the cessation of hostilities and that they "cannot be considered prisoners of war" is a gross violation of the humanitarian process and international requirements for the protection of human rights.

Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on the exchange of prisoners of war on the principle of "all for all" in early December.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, in a televised address on December 5, announced the agreement with Azerbaijan on the principle of "all for all" during the exchange of prisoners in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“This applies not only to those captured during the war, but also to those who ended up on the Armenian or Azerbaijani side before it,” Pashinyan said (quoted by Sputnik-Armenia). The Prime Minister noted that it is also necessary to develop mechanisms for the return of prisoners, data on which may appear in the future.

The mechanism for returning prisoners after the conclusion of peace on November 9 has not yet been worked out.

On December 16, the Yerevan media reported on the capture in Azerbaijan of 100 militants sent to Karabakh from the Shirak region of Armenia on November 29, that is, after the establishment of peace.

According to the Azerbaijani side, this unit was surrounded on the territory controlled by the Azerbaijani army. 30 militants who voluntarily surrendered were handed over to Russian peacekeepers. After a short fight, another 62 fighters surrendered. They were transported to Baku.

A well-known Azerbaijani lawyer who defended the rights of political prisoners, Fuad Agayev, disagrees with Tatoyan.

“The transition of Armenian militants to the territory of Azerbaijan after the announcement and commencement of the trilateral Statement of November 9 and the attempt of these units to enter into a clash with the Azerbaijani army means that they are not combatants, since they were identified and neutralized in peacetime, even from the point of view of the Armenian state. Therefore, the eighth paragraph of the Statement is not applicable to them, and they should be judged in accordance with the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan,” Agayev said.

The eighth point of the tripartite Statement reads: the exchange of prisoners of war and other detained persons and bodies of the dead is carried out.

“Thus, the Statement extends the exchange to those prisoners of war and other persons who were captured before peace was established. To solve the problem of prisoners after November 10, it is necessary to develop and adopt a mechanism according to which it will be possible to solve the transfer of prisoners, which Tatoyan speaks about,” Agayev said.

The lawyer believes that in order to finally solve the problem in the future, it is necessary for Armenia to stop transporting militants to Azerbaijan and the spread of terrorism on its territory.

The first exchange of prisoners of war took place on 14 December. The commander of the Russian peacekeepers, Rustam Muradov, personally handed over 12 people to the Azerbaijani side, and 44 people to the Armenian side. They were delivered to Baku and Yerevan by Russian Aerospace Forces aviation.

On December 28, with his mediation, two Azerbaijani soldiers returned to Baku from Yerevan, and Armenia received back four of its servicemen. –0—