03:55, 13 May 2021

ECtHR to consider mutual claims of Armenia and Azerbaijan on human rights violations during the war

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will consider two complaints filed by Armenia and Azerbaijan on human rights violations during the Karabakh War.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the ECtHR had received complaints about violations of the rights of 228 captured residents of Armenia, and of 13 captured citizens of Azerbaijan. The ECtHR demanded from the authorities of the two states to provide information about these people. The Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliev, stated that Baku had returned all the prisoners of war (POWs) to Armenia, as well as about 1600 bodies of perished Armenian soldiers.

The Azerbaijani authorities would not treat the Armenian citizens detained after the signing of the ceasefire as POWs. According to Baku, there are 62 or 63 such people kept in Azerbaijan. The Armenian party states that about 200 POWs are being held in Azerbaijan. On May 3, Armenian human rights activists named 19 people who, according to their data, had been killed in captivity.

The complaints lodged to the ECtHR tell about executions and ill-treatment, including of civilians, capture of POWs and the forced displacement of the population in the areas affected by the hostilities.

In its turn, Azerbaijan claimed that Armenia is responsible for the violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), in particular, for the fact that hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their homes, and for the destruction of cultural and religious values.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 12, 2021 at 10:18 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.