YEREVAN, APRIL 29, ARMENPRESS. Armenian prosecutors are probing over 100 criminal casefiles on the war crimes committed by the Azeri military-political leadership and troops during the 2020 war.

Foreign mercenaries and another 37 Azerbaijani nationals are charged (2 are arrested while 35 are internationally wanted).

The prosecution said that the Azerbaijani authorities, fueled with ethnic hatred, launched premeditated and targeted attacks on the peaceful civilian settlements of Armenia and Artsakh using artillery and drone strikes.

The Armenian prosecution said the Azeri attacks were an act of aggression, a war of aggression, which resulted in the deaths of both servicemen and civilians – who were protected under international conventions, and civilian infrastructures such as residential homes, kindergartens and roads were destroyed.

The Armenian authorities noted that an Armenia SU-25 warplane was shot down while it was flying in Armenian airspace, and the pilot Valery Danelin was killed. Hostile UAVs breached Armenian airspace and bombed the province of Gegharkunik, hitting residential homes in Sotk, a passenger bus, as well as servicemen on duty. A child was severely wounded when the Azeri military fired on civilians in an agricultural field. A civilian was killed in the bombing of Mets Masrik. The Azeri combat drones even reached the airspace of Kotayk  Province but were shot down by the Armenian air defense.

In Armenia’s south, three soldiers were killed in a bombing and military equipment which was not in combat was hit.

The investigation has gathered evidence that the Azeri military repeatedly tortured, murdered and subjected to inhumane treatment the prisoners of war and other detainees, including civilians both during and after the war. In one case, the Azeri servicemen beheaded an Armenian POW and published photos on the internet.

All cases are under scrutiny to give individual criminal-legal assessment to the actions of the Azeri servicemen.

The investigation also has evidence that the Azeri military vandalized and destroyed Armenian cemeteries and monuments, including churches both during and after the war.

Evidence includes facts that Azerbaijan pre-planned the war back in June 2020 and recruited more than 2000 Syrian mercenaries and deployed them via Turkey. Azeri authorities transferred payments namely to the Suleyman Shah and Sultan Murad terror groups.

Another criminal case concerns the downing of a Russian gunship over Armenian airspace by Azeri military on November 9, 2020, which killed two pilots and wounded another one.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan