HRC 51st Session: Item 3 – Right of Replies - Embassy of Armenia to Switzerland and Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN office at Geneva

HRC 51st Session: Item 3 – Right of Replies

19 September, 2022

First Right of Reply

Delivered by Mr. Henrik Yeritsyan, Second Secretary

Armenia asked for the floor to reply to the statement made by Azerbaijan.

The European Court of Human Rights adopted 201 interim measures with regard to the combatants and civilians of Armenian origin detained by Azerbaijan. The latter refused to acknowledge the detention of most of them, failed to meaningfully cooperate with the said Court and launched proceedings against 58 detainees, even though the IHL specifically requires to set PoWs free after hostilities. Should any charges be pushed, IHL prescribes fair trails based on presumption of innocence and right to be tried by an independent and impartial court. However, Azerbaijan refuses to release all Armenian PoWs and continues to detain servicemen and civilians, although almost two years have passed since the announcement of trilateral ceasefire Statement. The mock trials were held without affording all due process guarantees, especially the right to legal representation and the right to challenge the legality of detention.

Azerbaijan pursues policy of arbitrary detention of Armenians declaring openly and brazenly that its aim is to extract the maps of the minefields. Hence, these arbitrary detentions are carried out by Azerbaijan in order to gain leverage in relations with the State of their nationality. Armenia has returned all the maps of the minefields that it had. This has been officially acknowledged by the Government of Azerbaijan. However, the PoWs have not been repatriated.

The International Court of Justice has addressed this appalling situation adopting a provisional order on 7 December 2021 obliging Azerbaijan to protect Armenian detainees and ensure their equality before the law.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recently referred with deep concern to the (and I quote) “Allegations of severe and grave human rights violations committed during 2020 hostilities and beyond by the Azerbaijani military forces against prisoners of war and other protected persons of Armenian ethnic or national origin, including extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment and arbitrary detention”.

These kind of clear and addressed international reactions do not stop Azerbaijan. During last week attacks against the sovereign territory of Armenia, Azerbaijan again committed despicable atrocities against the captured Armenian soldiers and civilians, mutilated their bodies. The evidence was gathered from the short videos posted by the perpetrators of these crimes themselves on the social networks. This demonstrates again that Azerbaijan acts in the atmosphere of complete impunity.

I thank you.

Second Right of Reply

Mr. Henrik Yeritsyan, Second Secretary

Armenia asked for the floor to reply to the statement made by Azerbaijan.

During the war unleashed by Azerbaijan in 2020 against people of Nagorno Karabakh more than half of civilian deaths were among older people. Cases of summary executions of Armenian Prisoners of War and civilian captives are numerous and well documented, including by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Slavik Galstyan, 68-year-old, who lived with his family in the village of Mets Tagher, did not want to leave his home in October 2020. His body was found more than two months later. The death was caused by traumatic blood loss from gunshot wounds to his chest, stomach, and other internal organs.

Sedrak Petrosyan, 90 years old, was brutally kicked and beaten while in captivity. An 84-year-old Armenian man, Misha Melkumyan, who was detained as a civilian captive by the Azerbaijani military, died overnight October 29-30 in Azerbaijani custody.

The body of Ernest Harutunyan, the 84-year-old man from Hadrut who had mild dementia, was recovered in December 2020 with clear indications of torture and mutuliation.

The beheadings of the 69-year-old Genadi Petrosyan and 82-years-old Yuri Asryan by Azerbaijani armed forces, were reported by the Guardian newspaper.

On one of the cases the European Court of Human Rights held Azerbaijan accountable for the torture and killing of the 77 old Mamikon Khojoyan.

The torture and killing of Armenians are a patterned practice based on ideology of ethnic hatred, meticulously injected to Azerbaijani society from schools and kindergartens.

I thank you.

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