Amnesty: Karabakh's older people recount war crimes by Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - As the Nagorno-Karabakh war enters its third decade, renewed fighting in 2020 underscored the risks to one particular group: older people.

Older ethnic Armenians were invariably among the last to flee their villages, and reportedly made up more than half of civilian deaths. Many were subject to war crimes by Azerbaijani forces, including extrajudicial killings and torture and other ill-treatment in detention. Some older men are still missing, Amnesty International says in fresh research published on Tuesday, May 17.

"This report examines the violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, that Azerbaijani forces committed against older people during and after the 2020 fighting. The report also looks at the situation of older people living in displacement in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and the ways that older people remain marginalized in the authorities’ humanitarian response," Amnesty said.

Older people interviewed for the report were almost invariably the last to flee their villages or towns during the 2020 conflict. For some older people, physical disabilities and health problems made it more challenging and risky for them to flee, while those with psychosocial disabilities or dementia may have found it difficult to understand the necessity or urgency of leaving.

But many older people who did not have disabilities also stayed behind. Some said they wanted to support the war effort by making food or doing laundry for soldiers; others wanted to look after their property, including livestock, while the remaining population was away.

All older people described a deep attachment to their homes and land, both as valuable assets and sources of income as well as for the sentimental value they held. “I took my grandfather [away] a few times, but every time he would… insist on hitch-hiking back to the village,” said one man, whose 90-year-old grandfather was detained unlawfully by Azerbaijani forces. “He said his wife’s gravestone is there [and] he didn’t want to be anywhere else.”

"According to the Human Rights Ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh, at least 48 older civilians were killed during the fighting, more than half the total documented civilian death count among ethnic Armenians. While some were killed by indiscriminate shelling, at least 30 older people were killed unlawfully by Azerbaijani forces after they had taken control of villages and towns. Amnesty International was able to verify many of those cases through testimony from witnesses and relatives, as well as through reviewing death certificates, official forensic examinations undertaken by the Armenian authorities, and videos posted to social media. Many of the killings were extrajudicial executions, at times via beheading or shooting at pointblank range, and sometimes appear to have involved torture or other ill-treatment prior to the murder, as well as the mutilation of bodies," the report said.

"Some older people who stayed behind in towns or villages were arbitrarily detained and transferred to detention facilities in other parts of Azerbaijan. There, soldiers subjected them to beatings and other forms of physical violence and, in one case, to a mock execution, all amounting to torture or other ill-treatment. Older men appear to have been targeted for ill-treatment because Azerbaijani soldiers believed they had participated in Armenia’s war effort during the 1990s. Both older men and older women were denied appropriate medical treatment while in detention, including for serious diseases and conditions."

The report also shed light on the current situation.

"Compared to other groups with specific risks in situations of armed conflict and humanitarian crisis, older people’s experiences and perspectives have historically been absent from reporting, including by human rights organizations like Amnesty International, and neglected in humanitarian responses," .