İDDA CALLS ON INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF RIGHTS OF AZERBAIJANI CITIZENS TAKEN HOSTAGES
Today is 5 years Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev were taken hostages by Armenian armed forces. In July 2014, three Azerbaijani civilians were taken hostage in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. One of the hostages was killed, the other two – Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev – were subjected to severe physical and moral tortures. At the moment, Dilgam Asgarov who is a prisoner of war was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment and Shahbaz Guliyev to 22 years of prison. All these reaffirms the fact that Armenia, which has started the conflict, ignores the international instruments of the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Victims of War, and violates the provisions of international humanitarian law. The traces of moral and physical torture are clearly seen in the video and photos of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev shot in the courts of the unrecognized republic. According to the information given to the families of the hostages, in the letters, both prisoners have serious health problems, and vital problems. As a result of the unserious attitude of the Armenian government to the grave conditions of the prisoners, the health problems of both hostages are aggravating. We make a request from international organizations, taking immediate measures, to assist in the application of the provisions of the International Humanitarian Law of the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons during the War, to improve the conditions of both hostages and at the same time take urgent steps to ensure their right to return to their families.
İts about 30 years, from the early years of the independence the Republic of Azerbaijan faced with the military aggression of the Armenian occupiers, ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijanis and the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh problem. As a result of the expansion of the military aggression against Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh, which is an integral part of our country and seven adjacent regions – Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Gubadli and Zangilan were occupied. As a result of Armenia’s ethnic cleansing policy, than more 20,000 Azerbaijani citizens were killed and 20% of our lands were occupied, over one million and two hundred thousand people had to leave their homeland, hundreds of people have been captured and taken hostages.
Nushaba Mammadova
The Chairwoman of the International
Dialogue and Development Alliance
