188 Armenians protected by ECHR interim measures against Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan has said active interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights are currently being applied against Baku with respect to 188 Armenians captured by Azerbaijan.

Naghdalyan's comments came after Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said during a press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ann Linde that Azerbaijan has returned to the Armenian side all prisoners of war that were taken hostage during and before the military hostilities.

"This is another distortion of the Azerbaijani side on this urgent humanitarian issue. With his statement, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan contradicts other relevant bodies of that country, which confirmed the fact of the presence of dozens of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan, captured both during the hostilities and after the establishment of the ceasefire," the spokesperson said.

"Azerbaijan is withholding information regarding the Armenian prisoners of war also from the European Court of Human Rights, which is dealing with the matter in the framework of proceedings under the interstate case of Armenia vs Azerbaijan. The Court has recently decided to notify the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the subject, noting that Azerbaijan has failed to respect deadlines set by the Court for the submission of information or provision of rather general and limited information. There are currently active interim measures against Azerbaijan with respect to 188 Armenians captured by Azerbaijan. I must highlight that non-implementation of interim measures is tantamount to a violation of the Convention."

Naghdalyan said the 8th provision of the November 9 statement refers to all prisoners of war, captured civilians and other detained persons, and such statements prove that the Azerbaijani side deliberately does not implement the trilateral statement.

"The continuous holding of Armenian prisoners of war undermines the implementation of the agreements set in the trilateral statement," she added.