Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan has appealed to international organizations to secure the release of Azerbaijani hostages Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov, captured by Armenian armed forces in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.

Elchin Behbudov, chairman of Azerbaijan's Anti-Torture Committee told Trend that he sent an appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the World Organization against Torture, based in Geneva.

He noted that his letter outlined the horrific acts of torture that Armenians committed against to the hostages, who are currently kept in Shusha prison.

Armenian special forces killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov and took Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov hostage in the Shaplar village in the occupied Kalbajar region in July 2014, while they were visiting the graves of their relatives. Following an expedited “judicial process," Dilgam Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment, and Shahbaz Guliyev to 22 years in prison.

In his appeal, Behbudov called on international organizations to intervene for the early release of the Azerbaijani hostages and give the case a thorough legal assessment.

He also drew attention to the treatment of the Armenian spy Arsen Bagdasaryan and servicemen Andranik Grigoryan, who are held in prison in Azerbaijan.

Bagdasaryan, a member of an Armenian saboteur group, was captured by Azerbaijani servicemen in Aghdam district as he crossed the Armenia-Azerbaijan line of contact in December 2014. Grigoryan voluntarily surrendered to Azerbaijani troops in March.

Behbudov said the Azerbaijani government has always demonstrated its humanism, noting that such an attitude is also manifested towards the Armenian servicemen, held in prison in Azerbaijan.

The committee chairman urged international organizations to spare no efforts for the early release of the Azerbaijani hostages.

He also added that at present, negotiations with the World Organization against Torture are underway for this case.

Recently, Armenian media has reported that ICRC representatives have visited Azerbaijani detainees in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh once again and provided them with the opportunity to exchange news about their families.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict that emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by US, Russian, and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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