Siranush Sahakyan: The fate of 80 Armenians remains unknown, they may have been killed

Speaking with Alpha News, expert in international law Siranush Sahakyan said that the specific number of prisoners held in Azerbaijan is unknown because Baku often presents data that does not correspond to reality.

“As for prisoners, the quantitative data often does not correspond to reality. For example, in January-February 2021, Azerbaijan denied that some Armenians were captured. However, late in February we received confirmation of new prisoners, after whose return it was discovered that they had been in captivity since October, and in November they were under the control of national security authorities. The central authorities of Azerbaijan were well aware of their captivity, but they knowingly provided false information to the court, abusing procedural rights,” Siranush Sahakyan said.

She stated that, according to official data, 23 Armenians are currently held in Azerbaijan.

“At the moment, according to official data, there are still 23 Armenians in custody in Azerbaijan, but this is the number that Azerbaijan officially confirms. Various institutions, including our organization, carried out fact-finding activities, and following the results of the 2020 war, we documented another 80 cases of captivity of Armenians. All of these cases were confirmed during or within a short period after arrest. We had information that they were alive, but at this time we cannot confirm that they are still alive or that they may have been killed. The fate of these 80 people remains unknown. Essentially, they have the status of having forcibly disappeared from the moment the missing person is discovered to be dead. DNA is then identified or other evidence is collected to indicate that the person is dead. After this, their status changes, and they can be classified as killed during captivity,” our interlocutor said.

Sahakyan also added that the data they published and the images published by the Investigative Committee often do not match.

“According to data published by the Investigative Committee of Armenia, the number of forcibly disappeared people is 32. There are some inconsistencies in this regard, but I should note that the underlying methodology may be that we initially documented information about Armenians who survived before and after capture. However, we do not rule out that they were killed, and the Armenian side, having discovered this information, no longer considers them to have forcibly disappeared,” Siranush Sahakyan concluded.