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The International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, whose head office is located in Bucharest, Romania, has issued a statement regarding Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, taken as hostages in Azerbaijan’s occupied territory.
As an organization closely following the settlement process of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, the International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea states with a sense of regret that the past 2014 year didn’t mark a breakthrough in the conflict settlement, which means that another year was wasted in overcoming the conflict’s known consequences including humanitarian ones.
The International Fund reminds that three Azerbaijani civilians, who decided to visit the graves of their relatives in the occupied Kalbajar district in July of 2014, were taken as hostages by the Armed Forces of Armenia. Exposed to various tortures, one of them (Hasan Hasanov) was murdered while the other two (Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev) were brought to an illegal trial in the occupied Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
The International Fund further reminds that the UN Security Council in its Resolution 822 of April 1993 confirms that the occupied Kalbajar district is a territory of Azerbaijan and demands withdrawal of all occupying forces from this and other occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Due to the ethnic cleansing of all Azerbaijani population, the Security Council in this Resolution expressed, inter alia, its grave concern at the humanitarian emergency in the region, in particular in the Kelbadjar district.
“More than 20 years after the occupation, Armenia continues to ignore this and other three Resolutions of the UN Security Council and its Armed Forces are still stationed in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including in Kalbajar. This is a demonstration of Armenia’s policy to consolidate the results of its illegal occupation.
Over more than 20 years, Armenia did not allow anyone from the internally displaced Azerbaijani population to return back to their homes in these occupied territories.
It should be stressed in this regard that freedom of movement as a fundamental freedom of human being is, to a certain degree, observed in other conflict zones, for instance, in the territory of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. However, Azerbaijanis, who were forcibly displaced from their homes in the course of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, are even denied their right to visit the graves of their ancestors in the occupied territories.
Armenia’s leadership strengthens Azerbaijanophobia with the aim of consolidation of the Armenian society in Armenia and the Armenian community in Nagorno Karabakh around itself against the background of continuing socio-economic regress in Armenia, and consequently leading to difficulties it faces in supporting materially, financially and militarily its occupation regime in Nagorno Karabakh.
In light of the above-mentioned, it is clear that Armenia bears full responsibility for further tensions in the conflict zone”, says the statement.
The International Fund, driven by the benevolent intention to contribute to restoration of security and peace in the region, calls on the OSCE, UN, EU, Council of Europe and ICRS, to undertake effective measures in accordance with their competences and mandates so that Armenia releases illegally detained Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev.
Apa.az
