OSCE CiO rep. dubs detention of border-crossers “humanitarian issue”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office commented on detainment of 15-year-old Azerbaijani citizen Javid Samiroglu Muzafarzade during an attempt to cross the border to Artsakh.

As Andrzej Kasprzyk told APA, occasionally, civilians living and working close to the border lose their way and find themselves on the other side of it, where they get detained.

The personal representative noted that he supports ICRC actions for their prompt return. As Kasprzyk noted, he stressed the importance of the steps described at his meetings with relevant authorities.

Kasprzyk described detention of those who accidentally cross the border as a humanitarian issue: “This is a humanitarian issue which should not become politicized”.

Earlier, the Nagorno Karabakh State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons issued a statement expressing readiness to hand over the 15-year-old to Azerbaijan.

“The Nagorno Karabakh authorities, showing good will and commitment to the Geneva Convention, are ready to hand over to the Azerbaijani side Javid Samiroglu Muzafarzade, born in 1999, resident of Mir Bashir town of Azerbaijan, who crossed the Nagorno Karabakh border in Martakert region on September 5, 2014 and was detained by the relevant agencies of NKR,” the statement says.

The Nagorno Karabakh State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons informed the ICRC and OSCE Offices in NKR about the incident.

In mid-August, Armenia’s Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons announced plans to apply to international instances, including the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), over the death of 31-year-old Armenian citizen Karen Petrosyan in the Azerbaijani captivity, commission member Zaruhi Hakobyan said.

Azerbaijan branded Petrosyan, who can hardly read and write, a saboteur.