Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security: "Armenians conceal reports on Azerbaijani captives and hostages"

According to up-to-date reports obtained by the Azerbaijani State Commission on Prisoners, Hostages and Missing People, 4360 Azerbaijani citizens have been registered as missing and are sought now, said Eldar Mahmudov, Chairman of the State Commission and Minister of National Security of Azerbaijan at the signing ceremony of the framework agreement between the State Commission and International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday, APA reports.

He said Armenia concealed reports on the Azerbaijanis captives, hostages and missing during the military operations, which had been confirmed by the witnesses.

The Minister said Armenian state commission on prisoners, hostages and missing people showed the destructive position in most cases.

He said the facts confirmed that Armenia and separatist regime roughly violated the norms of international law against the prisoners and hostages.

Eldar Mahmudov said Armenia, in contrary to the international law, captured civilians – women, children and old men during its aggression against Azerbaijan. "Those people were kept in the inhuman conditions for long time and suffered from the tortures, wounded and ill people didn’t receive medical treatment. In many cases the captured and hostage civilians were killed".

The minister said Armenia informed Azerbaijan via ICRC about the 414 missing Armenian people.

"They spread false information that allegedly they are kept in Azerbaijan. We have investigated and analyzed the list of missing Armenians submitted by the International Committee of the Red Cross. According to the list, 197 people are citizens of Armenia and 211 are Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian nationality. We provided detailed information about the works we have done toward their searches. According to reports we obtained, Armenia didn’t take even the preliminary measures for searching its citizens".

/APA/