Application Submitted to European Court on Behalf of Families of Captured Armenian Soldiers, Says Zeynalyan

On the morning of September 27, 2020, during the large-scale war initiated by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, two soldiers of the Armenian armed forces, Areg Sargsyan and Narek Amirjanyan, were captured, wrote former Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan on his Facebook page.

It was noted that a group of lawyers submitted an application to the European Court on October 11, 2020, on behalf of the families of the captured soldiers, requesting the Court to compel Azerbaijan to:

1. act in accordance with international humanitarian customary law and the ceasefire agreement of October 10, 2020, regarding the exchange of prisoners of war and the retrieval of the deceased remains, and to return the latter to the authorities of Armenia under the auspices of the ICRC;
2. take all measures to protect their lives and ensure their physical and psychological integrity until their return;
3. provide adequate medical assistance.

We were recently notified that the Court registered the case on October 12, 2020, and notified the Azerbaijani government. The Court has decided to demand the following information from the Azerbaijani government:

1. the conditions in which the two captured soldiers are currently held;
2. information on medical examinations and their health status;
3. information on the possibility of exchanging the mentioned two soldiers, based on the provisions of the humanitarian ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan mediated by the Russian Federation.

The Azerbaijani government has been given a deadline to respond to the inquiries by October 22, 2020.