Nagorno Garabagh

Nagorno Garabagh

ICRC visits Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev

12 February 2018 14:16 (UTC +04:00)

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the Azerbaijani detainees captured in relation to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Last week, the ICRC visited again the Azerbaijani detainees captured in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We keep visiting people detained in relation to the conflict on a regular basis. According to its mandate, the ICRC visits detained individuals to monitor treatment and conditions of detention and help to ensure that the detainees are able to maintain contact with their families,” Ilaha Huseynova, head of the Communication Department of the ICRC Azerbaijan Delegation told APA.

Three Azerbaijanis are currently being detained in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In July of 2014, Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov and Azerbaijani citizen Shahbaz Guliyev were taken hostage and another Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov was shot to death by Armenian servicemen while trying to visit their homeland in Kalbajar. Hasan Hasanov’s body was taken from the enemy and buried in Baku.

On December 19, 2014, an illegal court of the separatist regime in Nagorno-Karabakh sentenced Dilgam Asgarov to life in prison and Shahbaz Guliyev to 22 years.

In addition, Azerbaijani citizen Elnur Huseynzade was detained by Armenians under unknown circumstances in the direction of Talish village in February this year.

Two Armenian saboteurs – Arsen Bagdasaryan and Zaver Karapetyan – are currently being held in Azerbaijan.

Arsen Bagdasaryan was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Ganja City Grave Crimes Court.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.