As long as Gurgen Margaryan’s beheader or the beheaders of civilians are not convicted, I do not consider the coexistence of Armenians and Azerbaijanis to be realistic. Siranush Sahakyan

“The fact that the captured persons are still in Azerbaijan after the 44-day war already speaks of the failure of the government. As a rule, an exchange of prisoners takes place after the end of active hostilities, moreover, humanitarian truces are internationally accepted. But Azerbaijan not only failed to fulfil its obligations, which were also stipulated in the November 9 document, but also artificially created an incident, the purpose of which was to capture new people,” “Possible return of prisoners of war. international law and justice” Siranush Sahakyan, a specialist in international law, representative of Armenian prisoners at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said during an interview in the Media Center.

According to her, the inactivity of the RA authorities in this matter was that they did not try to independently approach the issue of prisoners, did not raise the issue of war crimes committed by Azerbaijan, and seemed to accept the rules of the game dictated by Azerbaijan, that the return of prisoners should be conditional on the resolution of political issues.

As a result, we have a situation where all captured persons are kept as hostages for solving political issues,” said Siranush Sahakyan. According to the representative of Armenian prisoners at the ECHR, at the moment, 55 Armenians are officially held in Baku, who have different statuses: civil prisoners – 6 people, prisoners of war – 41 people, and prisoners of political persecution – 8 people.

“These are the official data. Apart from this, at least 80 prisoners of war and civilians were captured in Azerbaijan, and no steps are being taken to find out their fates,” said Siranush Sahakyan.

As for the conditions of detention of the prisoners, according to the representative of the Armenian prisoners at the ECHR, additional investigation is needed, especially in terms of psychological torture. She also noted that during this period the captives could not meet with any independent torture prevention mechanism.

Meetings were held only with representatives of the Red Cross, but they were often delayed. Even in the case of high-ranking officials, we were only able to get the information about the first visit after 2-3 weeks,” said Siranush Sahakyan, adding that torture is not excluded in this case, bad and humiliating attitude is dominant.

According to the expert of international law, even if the “Red Cross” documents torture, it is not able to speak about it, because its mandate is strictly humanitarian, and it cannot claim responsibility for torture.

Regarding the case of Vagif Khachatryan and the fact that his Azerbaijani defense attorney appealed the decision to imprison him for 15 years, Siranush Sahakyan said that she does not think that this measure will be effective.

“In this way, Azerbaijan is trying to pretend that there are domestic protection measures in that country, and that these mechanisms are effective. The main purpose of that appeal is to generate evidence in the proceedings in international courts,” said Siranush Sahakyan.

Referring to the case of Rashid Beglaryan, who is being judged by Azerbaijanis for allegedly carrying out the “genocide” of Khojalu, Siranush Sahakyan said that it is a fabricated charge, and Rashid Beglaryan’s age and place of residence played a role in drawing the charge.

“There is a legal position of the ECHR regarding the fictitiousness of the so-called Khojaly Genocide. Fatullayev, an Azerbaijani citizen, publicly denied the Khojaly genocide and argued that the primary responsibility for the humanitarian disaster was the Azerbaijani authorities, who had placed military facilities in civilian settlements. The latter, of course, was prosecuted in Azerbaijan, and the ECHR protected his right to freedom of speech, and the so-called Khojaly Genocide was described as a highly disputed fact,” said Siranush Sahakyan.

The expert of international law noted that Armenia does not have the political impact to resolve issues at the political level, and if we do not rely on legal processes today, we can leave the citizens of Artsakh and Armenia in a helpless state.

In this situation, I can say that the legal processes are certain restraining and counterbalancing mechanisms to the political processes, and Azerbaijan, realizing that the non-resolution of the issue will lead to the resolution of the problems through legal means, will take a more normal position in the political processes. The threat of this legal mechanism, I think, makes Azerbaijan’s behavior in political processes more manageable, and if we do not use legal instruments, I think the political processes will be a place where the Armenian interest will be completely ignored,” said Siranush Sahakyan.

Talking about whether Armenians and Azerbaijanis can live together, which is what the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan are talking about, the expert of international law said that the causes of the conflict must be eliminated for cohabitation, and we know that the Nagorno Karabakh issue was not a territorial dispute, but had an ethnic background.

“Thus, hatred towards the ethnic group of Armenians, violence has led to developments, and as long as this policy has continuity and is sponsored at the state level, we cannot prevent violence, which is based on hatred towards Armenians. As long as the beheader of Gurgen Margaryan or those who skinned and beheaded civilians during the 44-day war are not brought to criminal responsibility and act as heroes as an example for the Azerbaijani society, I do not consider the coexistence of Armenians and Azerbaijanis to be realistic,” said the international law expert.

Regarding the demand of Azerbaijanis to resettle in Armenia, Siranush Sahakyan drew attention to the demographic picture of Armenia in that case.

“This will lead to a change in the demographic composition, and in the conditions of not ensuring the numerical balance, we may become a minority in our homeland, and if Azerbaijanis enjoy all equal rights, they will have an impact in the political field as well,” said Siranush Sahakyan, adding that as long as the issue of return of the Armenians to Azerbaijan is not discussed, there is no principle of reciprocity in the process, what right is there to talk about the return of Azerbaijanis?

As for the trial of Artsakh’s military-political leadership, Siranush Sahakyan said that there are no clear dates yet.

“I think the trials of other Armenians will end, the stage of this important show-off trial will begin. That’s why I predict it will happen no earlier than 6 months. As for legal protection, it is simply impossible to organize it in Azerbaijan through an unlicensed lawyer, so the only option that families have is to protect themselves through Azerbaijani lawyers. It should be noted that Azerbaijan is the country where the licenses of the defenders to organize the protection of politicians have been revoked. International lawyers can represent the interests of our people in international courts. I have information that international lawyers will be involved in the case of some,” said Siranush Sahakyan.