Azerbaijani forces tortured and humiliated Armenian servicemen even when they were held captive by Azerbaijan for only 3-4 hours, Artsakh Human Rights Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan told a news conference in Yerevan on Wednesday.
He reflected on the capture of a resident of the Machkalashen community of Artsakh’s Martuni region on July 26. The man remained in Azerbaijani captivity for four hours and was released with the mediation of Russian peacekeepers.
“He was tortured and treated inhumanely, in particular, he had an injury in his right leg, he was in a serious psychological distress. This man had mental problems and in this case even those problems were not taken into account by the Azerbaijani side,” Stepanyan explained.
According to him, the Azerbaijani military inhumanely treated not only the captured and killed Armenian soldiers, but also the relatives of the missing servicemen.
“During the war, when the phones of our servicemen fell into the hands of Azerbaijani soldiers, they repeatedly used the social media accounts of our troops to hurt their relatives’ feelings. In one case, the account of a missing soldier was used to send messages to his mother and like her photos. In other words, an attempt was made to keep the relatives in a difficult situation,” Stepanyan said.
Ten months after the end of the war, a DNA analysis confirmed the death of the Armenian soldier, after which his mother removed the account from her friend list.
Referring to the situation in Artsakh, Gegham Stepanyan said despite the Russian peacekeeping mission there, Azerbaijan often violates the ceasefire, with the latest such incident recorded on Tuesday.
“The ceasefire is being violated from the Shushi area on an almost daily basis, the Azerbaijani side opens fire at Armenian settlements. It is unreasonable to assume that the replacement of existing troops by border troops can bring real results in this sense and Azerbaijan will refrain from illegal actions. Yes, it is necessary to introduce mechanisms that would allow finding out the perpetrators and the circumstances of the incide...
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