Baku – APA. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Tuesday received Patrick Vial, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Director for Europe and Central Asia, the Foreign Ministry’s press service told APA.
Sharing Azerbaijan’s concerns over the prisoners of war and missing persons, Patrick Vial mentioned that the families have the right to obtain information of their missing close ones.
He also expressed confident that the agreement reached at the 2014 Paris meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents on exchange of information about the mission persons will produce positive results in this area.
Elmar Mammadyarov in his turn noted the ICRC’s noble work regarding prisoners of war and missing persons, saying that Armenia should display a constructive position concerning this purely humanitarian issue.
He mentioned that Armenia’s aggression and occupation against Azerbaijan caused more than 4,000 Azerbaijanis to become documented missing people, adding that most of these people were killed by the Armenians and buried in mass graves in Armenia and the occupied territories.
Mammadyarov also noted that international institutions and the co-chairs should step up efforts for the immediate release of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev who were taken hostage by Armenian servicemen while they were visiting the graves of their ancestors in their historical lands.
The minister said the increase of cases of civilians being shot by Armenians is unacceptable, noting that the incident that occurred Sept.1, 2015 when Armenian armed forces fired from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories at civilians taking part in a wedding ceremony in Terter district’s Gapanli village is a flagrant violation of international law.
Mammadyarov went on to add that Armenian armed forces must withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani territories in order to prevent ceasefire violations and losses along the frontline.
The minister also emphasized that settlement of Syrians of Armenian origin in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories by Armenia is contrary to international humanitarian law, and this issue must be investigated on the basis of the ICRC mandate.
Armenia continues systematically breaching its obligations under the Geneva Conventions, Mammadyarov concluded.
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