STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The videos and photos widely spread by the Azerbaijani media, showing cases of inhuman treatment towards Armenian prisoners of war and the bodies of soldiers, as well as cases of beheadings, are war crimes, Ombudsman of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan said at a press conference.

“Azerbaijani social media networks are actively spreading videos, photos, showing different kinds of war crimes, inhuman treatment of bodies and POWs, cases of beheadings, as well as cases of making POW a subject of public interest. From several videos spread it is clear that they are using means of pressure on the POWs, it’s highly probably that they are using both physical and psychological pressure, in order to use them in the context of presenting the Azerbaijani propaganda thesis”, he said, adding that this is unacceptable and should be condemned in the strongest terms.

According to Beglaryan, these steps violate the provisions of the international humanitarian law of the Geneva Conventions.

The Ombudsman stated that the international community should pay a proper attention to these cases in order to prevent further violations and guarantee the protection of rights of POWs in Azerbaijan.

“The further violations and encroachments over the bodies of the Armenian servicemen should also be ruled out. In this context it’s important to note that Azerbaijan has violated the ceasefire agreements for already two times as a result of which it’s impossible to transfer and exchange bodies of many Armenian and Azerbaijani servicemen. This is an inhuman treatment to that bodies, here both we and the international community should draw conclusions. There is an impression that Azerbaijan deliberately doesn’t agree to observe the humanitarian ceasefire because it has many losses and doesn’t want for these bodies to be delivered to their families because it may cause a big resonance within the Azerbaijani society”, the Artsakh Ombudsman said.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan