Armenian prisoners of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
Armenian prisoners of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War are servicemen of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, as well as civilians and other detainees, who surrendered or were forcibly captured by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces during and after the conflict in 2020 between Azerbaijan and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh together with Armenia in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.
Azerbaijani forces inhumanely treated numerous ethnic Armenian military personnel, civilians and other detainees, subjected them to physical abuse,[1] torture,[2] humiliation,[1] enforced disappearance,[3][4] extrajudicial killing[5] and execution.[6] Intentionally killing civilians, intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, the granting of no quarter despite surrender are all considered war crimes.[7]
The number of Armenian POWs has remained unknown.[2] They were held in degrading conditions of detention.[5] Despite calls for the immediate release of all Armenian POWs, civilians and other detainees by the EU and international organizations,[8] Azerbaijan has filed criminal charges against them.[9] Armenia filed a case against Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice in September 2021, and the hearings took place in October 2021 in The Hague.[10]
Execution[edit]
Hadrut Execution[edit]
On 15 October 2020, a video surfaced of two captured Armenians being executed by Azerbaijani soldiers;[6] Artsakh authorities identified one as a civilian.[17] Bellingcat analysed the videos and concluded that the footage was real and that both executed were Armenian combatants captured by Azerbaijani forces between 9 and 15 October 2020 and later executed.[6] The BBC also investigated the videos and confirmed that the videos were from Hadrut and were filmed some time between 9–15 October 2020. A probe has been launched by Armenia's human rights defender, Arman Tatoyan, who shared the videos with European Court of Human Rights and who will also show the videos to the UN human rights commissioner, the Council of Europe and other international organizations.[18] The U.N. human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, stated that "in-depth investigations by media organisations into videos that appeared to show Azerbaijani troops summarily executing two captured Armenians in military uniforms uncovered compelling and deeply disturbing information".[19]
Others[edit]
On 10 December, Amnesty International released a report on videos depicting war crimes. In some of these videos, Azerbaijani soldiers were seen decapitating an Armenian soldier as he was alive. In another video, the victim is an older man in civilian clothes who gets his throat cut before the video abruptly ends.[20]
Beheadings of two elderly ethnic Armenian Civilians by Azerbaijani armed forces have been identified by The Guardian.[16]