Baku is the only war criminal of the April war. A clear protocol of the ECHR

The other day it became known that the European Court of Human Rights 10 years after the April war decision made, by which Azerbaijan was obliged to pay EUR 90,000 in compensation to the relatives of the brutally killed head of the missile artillery armament service of Mataghis N military unit, Major Hayk Toroyan.

The ECHR, among other things, recorded that Azerbaijan violated the right to life of an Armenian soldier and the prohibition of torture (beheading and desecration of the body).
It should be noted that Major Hayk Toroyan, who was seriously injured during the April 2016 war, died as a result of a blow to the head.

Armenia was involved in these cases as a third party according to court procedures, and although Azerbaijan has continuously denied its guilt, due to the careful work of the Armenian side, it was possible to present irrefutable evidence, including materials from Azerbaijani news channels.

And during the days of the 44-day war in 2020 and during the military clashes that took place after that, Azerbaijan continued its similar crimes, about which, as the former head of the RA International Legal Affairs Representative’s Office Liparit Drmeyan said, there are also complaints in the ECHR regarding these cases, and “if the authorities do not withdraw the complaints, they will be investigated by the court, and it is very likely that violations will be recorded again.”

In other words, the ECtHR decision related to what happened to Hayk Toroyan can be a precedent for the complaints taken during the 44-day period for the protection of the rights of the victims.

Azerbaijan, as expected, categorically rejected the ECtHR’s decision and announced that it will consider all possible measures to protect its legal interests, taking appropriate steps.

Baku, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed displeasure that the text of the ECHR decision mentions the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, the army, the line of contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, government bodies, etc. In other words, Baku has not at all denied the war crimes it committed during the April 2016 war and the atrocities committed against Armenian servicemen.

This did not deny even the Azerbaijani propaganda machine. And, in particular, one of the media in Baku wrote that allegedly Hayk Toroyan was “a soldier of the Armenian armed forces illegally located in the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan”, that “he was not defending his home, he was not in the territory of Armenia, but he was participating in the protection of the lands that the whole world recognized as Azerbaijani”.

Let’s assume for a moment that it is so, does this give Baku the right to behead an enemy soldier while he is alive, is there such an international norm? And then, on February 19, 2004, was the Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan again in the territory of Azerbaijan, when he was axed by the Azerbaijani criminal Ramil Safarov while he was sleeping? Moreover, later the Azerbaijani murderer was not only made a hero, but he is still serving in the armed forces of Azerbaijan, and last year he received the rank of colonel. In general, how? we wrote, Safarov and his wife enjoy the patronage of Aliyev’s government.

How much Armenia takes into account all of this, including the importance and precedential nature of the ECtHR judgment, we can make assumptions, even claims, especially when Nikol Pashinyan forgets that Aliyev’s aide Hikmet Hajiyev was one of the first to accuse Armenia of using prohibited weapons containing white phosphorus during the 44-day war, when they themselves used it, he forgets that Hajiyev never backs up will not stand up to the “just” demand to call Armenia responsible for the “Ganja incidents”, and not only that.

And the above-mentioned decision of the ECtHR is important not only in terms of being a precedent, but that it is, in fact, a response to the Baku “trial” with trumped-up charges against the military-political leadership of Artsakh, which was actually against the Republic of Armenia and the RA Armed Forces. At the moment, appeals of the former military-political leadership of Artsakh are being examined in the Appellate Court of Azerbaijan, they do not accept the charges brought against them. And during the actual trial, as we informed, not once was referred to also during the April 2016 war, Aliyev also sent “victims” to court on this topic.

For example, when presenting “episodes of crime” against the Armenian military-political elite, the state prosecutor of Azerbaijan, mentioning, in particular, the April war of 2016, tried to show that has been targeted civilian population. In 2016, such claims regularly was doing also today, Aliyev’s assistant Hikmet Hajiyev, who at that time represented the foreign ministry of his country, moreover, he tried to prove that the Armenian side tortured the Azerbaijani prisoners at different times, when it was their “monopoly”. This is a separate discussion topic.

In 2016, Azerbaijan violated international humanitarian law and tortured corpses, beheading whole people. The same thing happened during the days of the 44-day war, in 2022, during the September battles unleashed on the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

We are still not talking about the cases of torture and murder of Armenian prisoners before these incidents. I mean, much earlier we noticed that Azerbaijan’s war crimes are provable if the Armenian side carries out consistent work on international platforms, which was proved by the latest decision of the ECHR. Moreover, it is necessary to use the evidence when Azerbaijan fired its artillery in 2016 and even before that. had deployed close to their homes targeting its own citizens. This is if Baku activates the accusations against Armenia in connection with “targeting peaceful settlements”.

In this context, let’s add that during the “trial” in Baku, for example, the former commander of the Armed Forces, General Levon Mnatsakanyan, caught the Azerbaijani “victims” in lies several times. For example, a certain “victim” Elmir Abbasov, who stated that he was wounded in the Terter region during the April combat operations, where he served in the military, accused the Armenian armed forces of violating the laws of war, and even “prohibited ammunition was used against the civilian population: poisonous and incendiary projectiles.”

In response, Levon Mnatsakanyan stated that he was the commander of the army, but this is the first time I am hearing about what was presented. During another session, the general in Baku clearly claimed “During the days of the April war, the PB was not the attacking side.”

And when we warn that the war is not over, but may have temporarily moved to another dimension, this is exactly what we mean. And Azerbaijan will not sit idly by, so the RA government should have counter-scenarios, and in no case should it be the withdrawal of complaints from international courts, because impunity is what moves the war to the military dimension.

What is the Armenian side afraid of, the “Ganja incidents”? Hasn’t Azerbaijan targeted Armenian settlements, and even its own population, as we mentioned, but in 2016, during the 44-day war, and not before that, Yerevan did not behead an Azerbaijani soldier, did not kill any Azerbaijani prisoners. You can’t let go of Baku’s hands even when you’ve been given a “rope” and all you have to do is use it.

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