Armenian MP calls for clear-cut sanctions against Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, June 30. /ARKA/. Armenia should demand that clear-cut sanctions be applied against Azerbaijan - to deprive it of the voting right in the Council of Europe and arrest the accounts of its president Ilham Aliyev, Naira Zohrabyan, an outgoing MP from the Prosperous Armenia Party and a member of the Armenian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), told an extraordinary session of parliament today.

She said a recent meeting with the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Sayed Semidov in Strasbourg confirmed that Azerbaijan's position continues to remain unacceptable.

"They continue to claim that Armenian captives held in Azerbaijan are not prisoners of war, but terrorists. We see that Azerbaijani authorities are using the harshest articles of their criminal code to try our soldiers, which provide for imprisonment for a term of 14 to 20 years and even life imprisonment," Zohrabyan said.

According to Zohrabyan, the representative of the Azerbaijani delegation clearly indicated that discussions on the return of Armenian prisoners with the Armenian side can be in one case - if Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including 70% of the conquered territories of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

"Our position is clear - specific sanctions must be applied against Azerbaijan, and I suggest that our parliamentary colleagues make statements and appeal to international structures with a demand to apply clear sanctions against them. For example, the powers of the Azerbaijani delegation should be suspended in the Council of Europe," Zohrabyan said.

Moreover, according to the MP, arrests should be imposed on the bank accounts of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his family and clan.

"Otherwise, we will wait for a very long time for our guys to come back," Zohrabyan said.

The number of Armenian POWs still in custody in Azerbaijan remains unclear. By the end of February 2021, Armenia’s Representative Office at the European Court of Human Rights had asked the court to intervene with Azerbaijan regarding 240 cases of alleged prisoners of war and civilian detainees.

In approximately 90 percent of those cases, the office said, they had provided photo and/or video evidence confirming that Azerbaijani forces had taken these people into custody. 

Armenia’s leadership said that Azerbaijan has returned 87 POWs and civilians. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that his government has returned all the POWs to Armenia but was still holding approximately 60 people as terrorism suspects.

According to the Human Rights Watch,  Azerbaijani forces abused Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) from the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, subjecting them to cruel and degrading treatment and torture either when they were captured, during their transfer, or while in custody at various detention facilities in Azerbaijan.

“The abuse, including torture of detained Armenian soldiers, is abhorrent and a war crime,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It is also deeply disturbing that a number of missing Armenian soldiers were last seen in Azerbaijan’s custody and it has failed to account for them.”