Azerbaijan is hiding data on a number of prisoners of war and civilian captives, Artak Beglaryan said during his last press conference in the capacity of the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh.
According to him, the priorities today include clarification of the fate of the missing, retrieval of the bodies of the dead and return of captives.
“The Human Rights Defender’s office has been collecting and continues to collect information in this regard, especially within the framework of fact-finding mission. The information is being provided to relevant bodies of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh and the international structures.
The main obstacle in the progress of the process is the non-constructive stance of Azerbaijan and its criminal behavior, not only with regard to the large number of crimes and murders.
“It is obvious that they hide the real number of prisoners of war and civilian detainees,” Beglaryan said.
“We constantly present the data to international structures, including the Red Cross and the Russian side. While we have had success in certain cases, Azerbaijan is still hiding information about a number of captives,” Beglaryan said. He refrained from providing any numbers.
Artak Beglaryan will step down as Human Rights Defender to take up another post in the government of Artsakh.