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ARMENIAN PARTY IS READY FOR FURTHER COOPERATION FOR FULFILLMENT OF ASTRAKHAN ARRANGEMENTS
Mariam Levina
ArmInfo
2011-01-26 06:18:00
Interview of Armen Kaprielyan, Head of the Working Group at the
Armenian Commission on POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons, with
ArmInfo News Agency
Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev,
met in Astrakhan on October 27 2010 through mediation of Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and made an arrangement to exchange POWs
and hostages, as well as the bodies of the killed. Would you comment
on the current stage of fulfillment of the Astrakhan arrangement?
It should be noted that Armenia had been fulfilling its commitments in
line with the Geneva Conventions even before the above meeting and had
repeatedly displayed good will and repatriated hostages and the bodies
of the killed on a unilateral basis and without preconditions. Thus,
in April 2010 the bodies of the two Azerbaijani subverters killed
during the Azerbaijani recon element's penetration into the territory
of Armenia as well as the soldier Rafik Hasanov, who voluntarily
went over to the Armenian party and wanted to leave for a third
country, were transferred to the Azerbaijani authorities. Hasanov was
repatriated as soon as he changed his mind and expressed a desire to
return to his motherland.
As regards fulfillment of the Astrakhan arrangements, the only
thing the Azerbaijani authorities did is repatriation of the body of
Armenian hostage Manvel Saribekyan on November 4 2010 and the body of
the NKR citizen Gavrush Arustamyan to the NKR authorities on November
6 2010. The Armenian authorities repatriated a citizen of Azerbaijan
Eldar Tagiyev to Azerbaijan and the NKR authorities repatriated two
members of the Azerbaijani recon element that penetrated into the
territory of NKR.
In the light of the Astrakhan arrangements, I am bewildered at the
statement made by Shahin Sailov, Secretary of the Azerbaijani State
Commission for POWs, Hostages and Missing Citizens, a few days after
the meeting of the presidents saying that the Armenian hostages
in Azerbaijan do not want to return to Armenia. Despite such a
non-constructive approach by the Azerbaijani party, we are ready to
further cooperate for fulfillment of the Astrakhan arrangements.
A criminal case on the fact of Armenian citizen Manvel Saribekyan's
death in Azerbaijani prison has been instituted. Do you possess any
information about the preliminary results of the investigation and
expert examination?
I consider that public disclosure of the details of the investigation
is not ethical from the professional point of view. The criminal
case is under the jurisdiction of the Investigation Department of
the National Security Service of Armenia. The information about the
investigation results will be properly published by the National
Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office. However, I can
say that traces of violence against Manvel Saribekyan were found in
the course of forensic medical examination.
How many officially confirmed captives are there in Armenia,
Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan now?
At present the Azerbaijani authorities have confirmed the presence of
only 6 Armenian military servicemen and 1 civilian in Azerbaijan. At
the same time there are two Azeri military servicemen in Armenia.
In mid November 2010 the Azerbaijani party confessed that Armenian
citizen Artur Badalyan, who had been searched since May 2009, was
in the territory of Azerbaijan. How can this behavior of Azerbaijan
be explained?
And how can one explain the fact that for 4-5 years the Azerbaijani
party has been ignoring all our requests about our compatriots, which,
according to reliable information, are in the Azerbaijani captivity?
How can one explain the fact that Azerbaijanis hide the facts of
captivity of several Armenian prisoners or war and hostages from the
ICRC? There is only one conclusion: in such a way the Azerbaijani
party is trying to receive some dividends in the negotiating process
on repatriation of the captives.
As for Artur Badalyan, you have already mentioned that Azerbaijanis
proved the fact of his captivity only 1.5 years later, on 8 November
2010. After that the Azerbaijani party said it was ready to repatriate
him; however, the negotiations on this matter have been lasting
for three months but no clear response has been received from the
Azerbaijani party so far.
In this context I'd like to stress that that keeping of a civilian
captive for more than 18 months is a fact of violation of the
international humanitarian law and human rights, which cannot be
justified and should be condemned not only by the international
human rights and humanitarian organizations, but also by the whole
world community.
How many names of are there on the lists of missing persons of the
Armenian and the NKR Commissions?
At present the lists of the Armenian Commission on POWs, Hostages and
Missing Persons have over 200 names of missing persons as a result
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As regards the NKR, there are over
700 names.
Are there real prospects for cooperation with the Azerbaijani State
Commission? Have you received a response to the proposal made through
the mediation of the ICRC?
The prospects exist in the light of the arrangements reached by the
two presidents in Astrakhan in October 2010. The desire or reluctance
to cooperate is another question. We were open for cooperation with
the Azerbaijani State Commission even earlier and have repeatedly
stated that. We are also ready to cooperation with them now.
Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani party is not yet striving to cooperate
with us.
At the initiative of the Armenian party, in summer 2010 Azeris were
offered to hold a meeting of the two Commissions' Working Groups
in a third country through the ICRC's mediation. This would allow
discussing a number of practical issues and making an attempt to
establish direct ways of cooperation in order to solve the main
problems in the matter of searching for the missing persons, as well
as the problems of repatriation of the captives and dead bodies. The
Azeri State Commission has not yet given an official response to the
Armenian party's proposal.
Are the burials of the killed in military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh
still being searched for?
Significant measures were taken in the given dimension in 2008-2009.
We searched not only in the territory of Artsakh, but also in some
borderline regions of Armenia. All the data collected have been
verified and organized and the chairman of the Armenian Commission
for POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons was informed of the results
in due form. We are going to continue the search in the current year
in line with the Working Plan of our Commission.
In this light, I'd like to express my gratitude to the NKR Commission
for POWs, Hostages and the Missing, and particularly, to Chairman
Victor Kocharyan for invaluable assistance to the employees of our
Commission in the search in the territory of the NKR.
Are the captives' statements about their reluctance to return to
Motherland always true? In this context, how do you assess the
neighboring country's attempts to use the issue of the captives for
propaganda purposes?
The Armenian party has never hindered the Azerbaijani captives' will
expression, never made attempts to distort the real facts or influence
the captive Azerbaijanis' desire expressed during the meetings with
the ICRC delegates.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be stated when the matter concerns
Azerbaijanis' attitude to the captive Armenians. Armenian military
servicemen and civilians fall prisoners when they lose their way in
conditions of low visibility or due to unawareness of the location.
Over the past two-three years Azerbaijan has been stating all
the captive Armenians' reluctance to return to Motherland or
their desire to be sent to the third country. Under the threat of
physical intimidation and simple blackmail, the Armenian captives
are forced to make such statements not only during the meetings
with representatives of international humanitarian organizations,
but also before the video cameras. This is nothing but one of the
methods of agitation war against Armenia and Armenian people. One
should not neglect the circumstance that such statements provide an
opportunity to the Azerbaijani authorities to delay the negotiation
process on repatriation of the captives with impunity and practically
without any time limits.
The whole international humanitarian law qualifies the given phenomenon
as rough violation of the Geneva Conventions and infringement of
human rights. We have repeatedly drawn the relevant international
organizations' attention to similar violations of Azerbaijan in the
past, we are not going to put up with this in the future and we'll
keep on applying to international instances in each case of the kind.
How many captives have been sent to the third countries over the past
few years and what do you know about these persons?
Over the past few years two such cases were registered. In January
2008 Samir Mamedov was sent to a third country from Armenia, and in
May 2009 Paruyr Simonyan was sent to a third country from Azerbaijan.
Certainly, we possess the information on the further fate of the
persons sent to the third countries, but I am not going to publish
it for certain reasons.
As a rule, the Azerbaijani citizens, who were in Armenian captivity,
are sentenced to long-term imprisonment in Azerbaijan. That is, their
stay in Armenia is actually equaled to treason against the State. How
relevant is such an approach in a civilized state?
It is obvious for me that by these methods the relevant Azeri
authorities are trying to prevent the further attempts of their
citizens to cross the Armenian border. This is like a preventive
measure. It is another question whether this measure meets the concepts
of humanism. Let's not forget what country the matter concerns,
as Azerbaijan's behavior when treating both Armenian captives and
hostages and their own citizens taken prisoners in Armenia is, to
put it mildly, far from being the one of a civilized state.
What can you say about incarceration conditions of the captives in
Armenia and Azerbaijan?
The incarceration conditions of captives in Armenia and Azerbaijan
are cardinally different. The Armenian authorities fully observe the
requirements of the Geneva Conventions; all the incarceration standards
are observed, any facts of poor treatment are ruled out. The Armenian
Commission on POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons pays special attention
to this issue. This is not just a statement of the party concerned,
but a fact regularly registered during the ICRC employees' meetings
with the captive Azeris.
At the same time, Azerbaijan not only constantly violates the
incarceration conditions fixed in the Geneva Conventions, but also
applies methods of physical and mental effect against the captive
Armenians: tortures, bodily blows, intimidation, and blackmail. We have
repeatedly come across bodily injuries, traces of tortures and blows
on the repatriated Armenian captives. During the conversations held
with the former captives upon the repatriation, we learned outrageous
facts of mental effect measures that were applied against the captives
in the Azerbaijani torture chambers. The latest evidence of that was
Manvel Saribekyan's death in the Azerbaijani captivity.
What stage is the elaboration of the Bill on the Missing Persons at?
Would you dwell on the details?
Drafting of the Bill on the Missing Persons will be completed in the
first half of 2011. We started the process in September 2009.
Afterwards, the project will undergo relevant state procedure and
will be submitted to the parliament. The bill was necessitated by
the reform of the national legislative base related to determination
of the status of the missing persons and their families as well as
a range of organizational issues, financial aspects, etc. The bill
is drafted on the basis of the international experience and numerous
consultations with international and local public organizations and
open debates with various state agencies.
The head of the Commission for POWS, Hostages and the Missing and the
member of the Working Group at the Commission represent the Commission
at the inter-department working group drafting the Bill on the Missing
Persons and coordinated by the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
The Bill is based on the Model Law on the Missing Persons drafted by
the ICRC experts and approved by the Commission for Social Policy and
Human Rights, the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly and adopted at the
31st plenary session of the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly in 2008.
Regular consultations are held with the head of the ICRC Yerevan
Office and experts of the ICRC Head Office in Geneva. That bill will
become a real breakthrough in our activity and will liquidate almost
all the gaps in the national legislation of Armenia related to the
missing persons. In addition, as far as I know, there is no such a
law yet in the CIS and even in Europe, except Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Working Group will be 5 years old in 2011. How do you assess the
work done?
We are the working body of the Armenian Commission on POWs, Hostages
and Missing Persons, and we are accountable to the Commission. So,
the chairman of the Commission can give assessment to our activity.
However, I can say that our Working Group has been encouraged by
the Commission's leadership for many times, and some members of the
Working Group have been awarded for specific measures.
From: A. Papazian
Mariam Levina
ArmInfo
2011-01-26 06:18:00
Interview of Armen Kaprielyan, Head of the Working Group at the
Armenian Commission on POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons, with
ArmInfo News Agency
Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev,
met in Astrakhan on October 27 2010 through mediation of Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and made an arrangement to exchange POWs
and hostages, as well as the bodies of the killed. Would you comment
on the current stage of fulfillment of the Astrakhan arrangement?
It should be noted that Armenia had been fulfilling its commitments in
line with the Geneva Conventions even before the above meeting and had
repeatedly displayed good will and repatriated hostages and the bodies
of the killed on a unilateral basis and without preconditions. Thus,
in April 2010 the bodies of the two Azerbaijani subverters killed
during the Azerbaijani recon element's penetration into the territory
of Armenia as well as the soldier Rafik Hasanov, who voluntarily
went over to the Armenian party and wanted to leave for a third
country, were transferred to the Azerbaijani authorities. Hasanov was
repatriated as soon as he changed his mind and expressed a desire to
return to his motherland.
As regards fulfillment of the Astrakhan arrangements, the only
thing the Azerbaijani authorities did is repatriation of the body of
Armenian hostage Manvel Saribekyan on November 4 2010 and the body of
the NKR citizen Gavrush Arustamyan to the NKR authorities on November
6 2010. The Armenian authorities repatriated a citizen of Azerbaijan
Eldar Tagiyev to Azerbaijan and the NKR authorities repatriated two
members of the Azerbaijani recon element that penetrated into the
territory of NKR.
In the light of the Astrakhan arrangements, I am bewildered at the
statement made by Shahin Sailov, Secretary of the Azerbaijani State
Commission for POWs, Hostages and Missing Citizens, a few days after
the meeting of the presidents saying that the Armenian hostages
in Azerbaijan do not want to return to Armenia. Despite such a
non-constructive approach by the Azerbaijani party, we are ready to
further cooperate for fulfillment of the Astrakhan arrangements.
A criminal case on the fact of Armenian citizen Manvel Saribekyan's
death in Azerbaijani prison has been instituted. Do you possess any
information about the preliminary results of the investigation and
expert examination?
I consider that public disclosure of the details of the investigation
is not ethical from the professional point of view. The criminal
case is under the jurisdiction of the Investigation Department of
the National Security Service of Armenia. The information about the
investigation results will be properly published by the National
Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office. However, I can
say that traces of violence against Manvel Saribekyan were found in
the course of forensic medical examination.
How many officially confirmed captives are there in Armenia,
Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan now?
At present the Azerbaijani authorities have confirmed the presence of
only 6 Armenian military servicemen and 1 civilian in Azerbaijan. At
the same time there are two Azeri military servicemen in Armenia.
In mid November 2010 the Azerbaijani party confessed that Armenian
citizen Artur Badalyan, who had been searched since May 2009, was
in the territory of Azerbaijan. How can this behavior of Azerbaijan
be explained?
And how can one explain the fact that for 4-5 years the Azerbaijani
party has been ignoring all our requests about our compatriots, which,
according to reliable information, are in the Azerbaijani captivity?
How can one explain the fact that Azerbaijanis hide the facts of
captivity of several Armenian prisoners or war and hostages from the
ICRC? There is only one conclusion: in such a way the Azerbaijani
party is trying to receive some dividends in the negotiating process
on repatriation of the captives.
As for Artur Badalyan, you have already mentioned that Azerbaijanis
proved the fact of his captivity only 1.5 years later, on 8 November
2010. After that the Azerbaijani party said it was ready to repatriate
him; however, the negotiations on this matter have been lasting
for three months but no clear response has been received from the
Azerbaijani party so far.
In this context I'd like to stress that that keeping of a civilian
captive for more than 18 months is a fact of violation of the
international humanitarian law and human rights, which cannot be
justified and should be condemned not only by the international
human rights and humanitarian organizations, but also by the whole
world community.
How many names of are there on the lists of missing persons of the
Armenian and the NKR Commissions?
At present the lists of the Armenian Commission on POWs, Hostages and
Missing Persons have over 200 names of missing persons as a result
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As regards the NKR, there are over
700 names.
Are there real prospects for cooperation with the Azerbaijani State
Commission? Have you received a response to the proposal made through
the mediation of the ICRC?
The prospects exist in the light of the arrangements reached by the
two presidents in Astrakhan in October 2010. The desire or reluctance
to cooperate is another question. We were open for cooperation with
the Azerbaijani State Commission even earlier and have repeatedly
stated that. We are also ready to cooperation with them now.
Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani party is not yet striving to cooperate
with us.
At the initiative of the Armenian party, in summer 2010 Azeris were
offered to hold a meeting of the two Commissions' Working Groups
in a third country through the ICRC's mediation. This would allow
discussing a number of practical issues and making an attempt to
establish direct ways of cooperation in order to solve the main
problems in the matter of searching for the missing persons, as well
as the problems of repatriation of the captives and dead bodies. The
Azeri State Commission has not yet given an official response to the
Armenian party's proposal.
Are the burials of the killed in military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh
still being searched for?
Significant measures were taken in the given dimension in 2008-2009.
We searched not only in the territory of Artsakh, but also in some
borderline regions of Armenia. All the data collected have been
verified and organized and the chairman of the Armenian Commission
for POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons was informed of the results
in due form. We are going to continue the search in the current year
in line with the Working Plan of our Commission.
In this light, I'd like to express my gratitude to the NKR Commission
for POWs, Hostages and the Missing, and particularly, to Chairman
Victor Kocharyan for invaluable assistance to the employees of our
Commission in the search in the territory of the NKR.
Are the captives' statements about their reluctance to return to
Motherland always true? In this context, how do you assess the
neighboring country's attempts to use the issue of the captives for
propaganda purposes?
The Armenian party has never hindered the Azerbaijani captives' will
expression, never made attempts to distort the real facts or influence
the captive Azerbaijanis' desire expressed during the meetings with
the ICRC delegates.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be stated when the matter concerns
Azerbaijanis' attitude to the captive Armenians. Armenian military
servicemen and civilians fall prisoners when they lose their way in
conditions of low visibility or due to unawareness of the location.
Over the past two-three years Azerbaijan has been stating all
the captive Armenians' reluctance to return to Motherland or
their desire to be sent to the third country. Under the threat of
physical intimidation and simple blackmail, the Armenian captives
are forced to make such statements not only during the meetings
with representatives of international humanitarian organizations,
but also before the video cameras. This is nothing but one of the
methods of agitation war against Armenia and Armenian people. One
should not neglect the circumstance that such statements provide an
opportunity to the Azerbaijani authorities to delay the negotiation
process on repatriation of the captives with impunity and practically
without any time limits.
The whole international humanitarian law qualifies the given phenomenon
as rough violation of the Geneva Conventions and infringement of
human rights. We have repeatedly drawn the relevant international
organizations' attention to similar violations of Azerbaijan in the
past, we are not going to put up with this in the future and we'll
keep on applying to international instances in each case of the kind.
How many captives have been sent to the third countries over the past
few years and what do you know about these persons?
Over the past few years two such cases were registered. In January
2008 Samir Mamedov was sent to a third country from Armenia, and in
May 2009 Paruyr Simonyan was sent to a third country from Azerbaijan.
Certainly, we possess the information on the further fate of the
persons sent to the third countries, but I am not going to publish
it for certain reasons.
As a rule, the Azerbaijani citizens, who were in Armenian captivity,
are sentenced to long-term imprisonment in Azerbaijan. That is, their
stay in Armenia is actually equaled to treason against the State. How
relevant is such an approach in a civilized state?
It is obvious for me that by these methods the relevant Azeri
authorities are trying to prevent the further attempts of their
citizens to cross the Armenian border. This is like a preventive
measure. It is another question whether this measure meets the concepts
of humanism. Let's not forget what country the matter concerns,
as Azerbaijan's behavior when treating both Armenian captives and
hostages and their own citizens taken prisoners in Armenia is, to
put it mildly, far from being the one of a civilized state.
What can you say about incarceration conditions of the captives in
Armenia and Azerbaijan?
The incarceration conditions of captives in Armenia and Azerbaijan
are cardinally different. The Armenian authorities fully observe the
requirements of the Geneva Conventions; all the incarceration standards
are observed, any facts of poor treatment are ruled out. The Armenian
Commission on POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons pays special attention
to this issue. This is not just a statement of the party concerned,
but a fact regularly registered during the ICRC employees' meetings
with the captive Azeris.
At the same time, Azerbaijan not only constantly violates the
incarceration conditions fixed in the Geneva Conventions, but also
applies methods of physical and mental effect against the captive
Armenians: tortures, bodily blows, intimidation, and blackmail. We have
repeatedly come across bodily injuries, traces of tortures and blows
on the repatriated Armenian captives. During the conversations held
with the former captives upon the repatriation, we learned outrageous
facts of mental effect measures that were applied against the captives
in the Azerbaijani torture chambers. The latest evidence of that was
Manvel Saribekyan's death in the Azerbaijani captivity.
What stage is the elaboration of the Bill on the Missing Persons at?
Would you dwell on the details?
Drafting of the Bill on the Missing Persons will be completed in the
first half of 2011. We started the process in September 2009.
Afterwards, the project will undergo relevant state procedure and
will be submitted to the parliament. The bill was necessitated by
the reform of the national legislative base related to determination
of the status of the missing persons and their families as well as
a range of organizational issues, financial aspects, etc. The bill
is drafted on the basis of the international experience and numerous
consultations with international and local public organizations and
open debates with various state agencies.
The head of the Commission for POWS, Hostages and the Missing and the
member of the Working Group at the Commission represent the Commission
at the inter-department working group drafting the Bill on the Missing
Persons and coordinated by the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
The Bill is based on the Model Law on the Missing Persons drafted by
the ICRC experts and approved by the Commission for Social Policy and
Human Rights, the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly and adopted at the
31st plenary session of the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly in 2008.
Regular consultations are held with the head of the ICRC Yerevan
Office and experts of the ICRC Head Office in Geneva. That bill will
become a real breakthrough in our activity and will liquidate almost
all the gaps in the national legislation of Armenia related to the
missing persons. In addition, as far as I know, there is no such a
law yet in the CIS and even in Europe, except Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Working Group will be 5 years old in 2011. How do you assess the
work done?
We are the working body of the Armenian Commission on POWs, Hostages
and Missing Persons, and we are accountable to the Commission. So,
the chairman of the Commission can give assessment to our activity.
However, I can say that our Working Group has been encouraged by
the Commission's leadership for many times, and some members of the
Working Group have been awarded for specific measures.
From: A. Papazian