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Armenian family held in Azerbaijan handed over to their country - UPDATED

Armenian family held in Azerbaijan handed over to their country - <span style="color: red;">UPDATED

12 December 2014 11:46 (UTC +04:00)

Spokesperson of the ICRC Baku Office Ilaha Huseynova told APA that 5 Armenian citizens, all member of the same family, have today been handed over to their country in the direction of Gazakh district. The ICRC facilitated the process.

Note that, 5 Armenian citizens – Yeghishe, Ruzanna, Alfred, Gayane, and Petros Gevorgyan illegally crossed to the territory of Azerbaijan in January, 2010.

The State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons also released information on the return of the Armenian family to their country.

According to the information, the Armenian citizens –Yeghishe Gevorgyan Petrosovich (born in 1958), his wife Ruzanna Mardanyan Genoyevna (born in 1982), sons Alfred Gevorgyan Yeghishevich (born in 2002), Petros Mardanyan Yeghishevich (born in 2006) and daughter Gayane Gevorgyan Yeghishevich (born in 2003) – illegally crossed to the territory of Azerbaijan on 10 January 2010 in order to move a third country and had been held in Azerbaijan since then. Honoring the international humanitarian legal norms and the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, Azerbaijan handed over the Armenian family to their country on the border with Armenia in the direction Bala Jafarli village of Gazakh region on Dec. 12, 2014 on the basis of their appeal to voluntarily return to Armenia.

As is known, because of facing prosecutions in his country, head of the family Y. Gevorgyan crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border through Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in a Eraz car under intense fire of the Armenian armed forces, risking his own life and the lives of his family members. Y. Gevorgyan and his spouse R. Mardanyan refused to go back to Armenia with their family on the day they crossed to the territory of Azerbaijan –10 January 2010, appealing to the Azerbaijani government to send them to a third country.

In accordance with the procedure, their appeal was sent to the Azerbaijani office of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which gave the family refugee status and began to define the country to send them to. Despite nearly 5 years have passed, no country was found to accept the Armenian family. At last, they decided to return to their country.

The family was under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, since that time the family crossed to the territory of Azerbaijan. They were regularly visited by the ICRC and UNHCR. Both organizations constantly confirmed that the family’s living conditions in Azerbaijan meet all international humanitarian legal norms. The members of the Armenian family were constantly passing medical examination and no health problems were revealed.

Nevertheless, in most cases Yegishe Gevorgyan behaved emotionally and put forward several demands, expressed “dissatisfaction” to representatives of international organizations who visited them and even blackmailed and threatened them to commit suicide and cause physical damage to the family members and go on a hunger-strike. With these actions, she wanted to underline the importance of sending the family to a third country as soon as possible, putting pressure on relevant international organizations.

During the period of detention of the family in Azerbaijan, Armenia has never raised an issue of their return and not even asked the fate of children.

No incident occurred during the handover conducted by the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People and the Defense Ministry through the International Committee of the Red Cross.