Ombudsperson states use of violence against Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Armenian citizens held captive in Azerbaijan are subjected to violence for their religious beliefs, Arman Tatoyan, the Armenian Ombudsperson, has stated. Armenian authorities are doing nothing to bring Azerbaijan to responsibility for the cruel treatment of prisoners of war (POWs), human rights defenders assert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in August 2021, Artak Zeinalyan, an Armenian human rights defender, reported that Azerbaijan has admitted the existence of only 45 Armenian POWs, while Armenia submitted information about 280 POWs to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Arman Tatoyan has stated on the Facebook that Armenian POWs are exposed to physical pressure in Azerbaijan, including for their religious beliefs. According to his version, Armenian militaries are demanded to renounce their Christian faith.

"They either took away or destroyed Christian crosses from those who wore them. And when POWs demanded their crosses back, they were brutally beaten up and ridiculed," the Ombudsperson has written, noting that proofs of religious torture were included into his latest extraordinary human rights report.

Larisa Alaverdyan, the first Armenian Ombudsperson and now the head of the NGO "Against Legal Arbitrariness", said that such torture was also used during the first Karabakh war, but then the facts were not made public.

Nina Karapetyants, the head of the Helsinki Association of Armenia, believes that Azerbaijan completely ignores all international conventions.