Armenian prisoners of war during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
Armenian prisoners of war during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War are a category of 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, torture, humiliation, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing and execution. Intentionally killing civilians, intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, the granting of no quarter despite surrender are all war crimes. The number of Armenian POWs remained unknown. They were held in degrading conditions of detention. Despite calls for the immediate release of all Armenian POWs, civilians and other detainees by the EU and international organizations, Azerbaijan has filed criminal charges against them. Armenia filed a case against Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice in September 2021, with hearings that took place  in October 2021 in The Hague. Background. Renewed hostilities between Azerbaijan and Artsakh together with Armenia began on 27 September 2020. Many territories passed under the control of Azerbaijan during the following six weeks which culminated in the capture of the strategically important town Shusha (known also as Shushi) and prompted the two sides to agree to a ceasefire agreement on 9November 2020. According to the agreement, both belligerent parties agreed to exchange prisoners of war and the dead. Abuse and torture. On 19 March 2021, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Azerbaijani Armed Forces abused Armenian POWs of the  Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, "subjecting them to cruel and degrading treatment and torture either when they were captured, during their transfer, or while in custody at various detention facilities." Human Rights Watch called on the Azerbaijani authorities to investigate the cases of ill-treatment and bring those responsible to justice. The organization also called on the Azerbaijani side to immediately release all remaining POWs and detained civilians and provide information on the whereabouts of military personnel and civilians whose status is unknown. Human Rights Watch also examined more than 20 videos posted on social media of scenes in which Azerbaijani  officers clearly mistreat Armenian POWs. Testimony of POWs. Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch interviewed four Armenian POWs who described in detail their mistreatment in detention, as well as the mistreatment of other POWs with whom they were taken prisoner or in the same cell. All POWs described prolonged and repeated beatings. One of the Armenian POWs said that he was stabbed with a sharp metal rod. The Azerbaijani soldiers used a metal rod to poke the men who were tied up. Another Armenian POW said that he was tortured with electric shocks, and one was repeatedly burned with a  cigarette lighter. In the first days of detention, POWs were given very little water and almost no food. All these four POWs had been wounded before their capture. Three of the four Armenian soldiers were beaten by Azerbaijani forces immediately following their capture. One of the Armenian POWs, who was 19 years old, said to Human Rights Watch that he was tied up, handcuffed and thrown into the back of the car, face down. Once on the road, one of the Azerbaijani servicemen started yelling at him and beating him. an Azerbaijani serviceman burnt his hands with what he described  as a "windproof lighter", which was also used to heat up a metal rod and poke him in the back with the rod. the prisoner also told about that effect this abuse had on him and its continuation in the hospital: Another 20-year-old Armenian POW, who was captured on 20 October 2021 in the Hadrut Province, along with eight other soldiers, was beaten by the Azerbaijani military: Three Armenian POWs spent three to five days in the Azerbaijani military police in Baku. All three POWs said that they were handcuffed to a radiator and had no mattresses or  blankets. Once a day, the guards took them to the toilet, where they could also drink tap water. They were not given food or water and received no medical attention for their injuries. Azerbaijani officers beat the Armenian POWs with fists, feet and wooden rods. One of the Armenian POWs said about his detention in Baku that he almost did not sleep there. He would get assaulted and beaten by a group of guards, numbering two to four, as soon as he spelt. One of them broke a wooden rod on him, hitting him so badly that he temporarily lost  the use of one of his arms. On his fourth day there, he was beaten so badly that two of his ribs broke. Another 31-year-old Armenian POW detailed their repeated beatings; as soon as they were brought to the military police in Baku, they were beaten nonstop for one and a half hour, pushed into the ground, punched, and kicked, two or three guards "working" on each of them. once in his cell with another prisoner from his group, guards would come and beat them several times a day. the prisoner stated that they weren't interrogated during  their abuse and instead were asked questions like "why did you join fighting". The four POWs were transferred to the National Security Ministry detention facility in Baku, where they were interrogated by Azerbaijani special services for several weeks. During interrogations, they were all beaten with fists, kicked and with truncheons. One of the POWs, Tigran, said that he was twice tortured with electric current. The first time, the torture lasted about 40 minutes, and each time he fainted from pain, he was brought to his senses and given new electric shocks. In the second case, the torture lasted approximately 10  minutes. Another POW, Hovhannes, spent about 50 days at the National Security Ministry detention facility. The guards went into his cell every day to kick and beat the POWs. The beatings mostly took place in the cell and sometimes continued until midnight. Hovhannes said that they were hitting him even in front of the doctor, who changed his bandages, he was beaten every day and make to us say ‘Karabakh is Azerbaijan’ every time they opened the cell. Maral Najarian and Viken Euljekjian. Maral Najarian and her fiancé Viken Euljekjian were captured on 10 November 2020, on their way to  Shushi, unaware that the city had been captured by Azerbaijani Armed Forces. According to Maral, they were handcuffed and searched and their phones, car and passports were confiscated. After two hours of detainment, guards began to beat Euljekjian. Later they were moved to a military prison and then to Baku under the pretext of handing them to the Red Cross, only to be moved to another prison, which Najarian believes to be Gobustan Prison. That was the last time Najarian had seen Euljekjian, bruised and with open wounds on his wrists. Najarian was released on 10 March 2021, through mediation  of the International Committee of the Red Cross. while Euljekjian was sentenced to 20 year in prison in Azerbaijan under the pretence of "terrorism". Videos depicting abuse. There are hundreds of videos that depict abuses against Armenian prisoners online, both military and civilian, 35 of whom have been identified through video evidence as of 15 December 2021. In one video, a villager named Kamo Manasyan is kicked and beaten as blood streams from his right eye. "How many more of you are here?" his abuser yells in Russian, aiming a rifle at Manasyan's head, to which Manasyan replies "Shoot  me if you want", Manasyan is then hit with the rifle stock. Execution. Hadrut Execution. On 15 October 2020, a video surfaced of two captured Armenians being executed by Azerbaijani soldiers; Artsakh authorities identified one as a civilian. "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. 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. 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". Others. 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. Beheadings of two elderly ethnic Armenian Civilians by Azerbaijani armed forces have been identified by The Guardian. In videos posted online on 22 November and 3 December, men in Azerbaijani military uniforms hold down and decapitate a man using a knife. One then places the severed head on a dead animal. "This is how we get revenge – by cutting off heads," a voice says off-camera. The victim was identified as Genadi Petrosyan, 69 , who had moved to Matadashen in the late 1980s from Sumgait. Another video posted on 7 December showed two soldiers in Azerbaijani military uniforms pinning down an elderly man near a tree. Another soldier passes a knife to one of the attackers, who begins slicing at the victim's neck. The victim was identified as Yuri Asryan, a reclusive 82-year-old who had refused to leave his village, Azokh. Repatriation and after the war. In December 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan have begun exchanging groups of prisoners of war mediated by Russia. As of February 2022, 150 prisoners, including civilians , returned to Armenia and Artsakh. Reactions. Armenia and Artsakh. According to Armenian authorities, as of April 2021, over 200 Armenian POWs were held captive by Azerbaijan. Armenian diaspora. On 14 April 2021, a global campaign was launched among the Armenian diaspora to demand the release of Armenian POWs and other detainees held in Azerbaijan. Protests were held in 14 cities around the world, including Toronto, Paris, Rome, Houston, Sacramento, Montréal, New York, Los Angeles, Warsaw, Berlin, Hamburg and Moscow. Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan, the detainees are not considered POWs, accusing them of various crimes allegedly committed after the signing of the  ceasefire agreement. International. European parliament. On 20 May 2021, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging Azerbaijan to immediately and unconditionally release all the Armenian prisoners, both military and civilian, detained during or after the conflict. OHCHR. On 1 February 2021, UN human rights experts called on both sides for the prompt release of POWs and other captives. They were also concerned by allegations that POWs and other protected persons have been subjected to extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment. Organization of American States (OAS). Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro has called  for the release of all Armenian prisoners of war. Freedom House. On 11 May 2021, the human rights organization Freedom House stated it was "deeply concerned by the reports of dehumanizing treatment and abuse, including torture, of Armenians captured and detained by Azerbaijan after the recent armed conflict" and urged the Azerbaijani authorities "to fully cooperate with the efforts of the European Court of Human Rights to investigate the validity of reports of dehumanizing treatment of Armenian detainees regardless of their status and ensure those still in custody are provided with all protections required under international human rights and humanitarian  law, including freedom from torture and inhuman treatment, and that details of their repatriation are provided."