Azerbaijan asked the European Court until December 8 to provide information on the Armenians captured on November 16. The ECHR partially upheld Baku's application, setting a December 6 deadline. Armenia appealed to the court on November 22 demanding the basic rights of Armenian servicemen captured during the aggressive actions unleashed by Azerbaijan in the sovereign territory of the country. Azerbaijan was given until December 1 to provide detailed information on the whereabouts and health status of the persons.
Liparit Drmeyan (Head of the Office of the Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the ECHR) - Based on our previous experience, we predicted that Azerbaijan might not respond or ask for time to answer questions. We received a notification from the court on December 1 that Azerbaijan had asked for an extension for the answers.
The implementation of the decisions and judgments of the Strasbourg Court is under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The Office of the Armenian Representative to the ECHR expects that Azerbaijan will comply with the court decision and there will be no need to apply to the Committee of Ministers.
Liparit Drmeyan - The last time we raised this issue in court several times, an application has been sent several times, as a result of which a notification was sent to the Committee of Ministers that its decisions are not being implemented, so that the Committee of Ministers keeps the issue under its control. In this case, too, if we have such a situation, we will apply to that mechanism, the issue is solely at the discretion of the court, it will decide whether to notify or not. Hopefully, the case will not reach that, on December 6 we will have some response from the Azerbaijani side.
Following the events of November 16, human rights activists filed an interim measure against four people who came under Azerbaijani control, and last week the European Court upheld the request. It is not specified how many people applied to the office of the Armenian representative to the ECHR in Strasbourg. According to an expert in international law, by violating the deadline for the implementation of ECHR decisions, Azerbaijan is trying to delay the issue in the legal arena for political purposes.
Ara Ghazaryan (specialist in international law) - Azerbaijan is already well-known, let's not forget the first lawsuit after the first reforms in 2014, in which Azerbaijan refused to conduct a specific case, it was Azerbaijan in the Mammadov case. There is already a certain image at the Committee of Ministers against Azerbaijan in terms of non-implementation of the decisions of the European Court. It is a case related to a journalist, he was deprived of freedom and he was ordered to be released by the decision of the ECHR, Azerbaijan did not implement that decision for about 3 years.
At the request of the ECHR, Azerbaijan must provide complete information on the captives. The applications submitted to the court are about concrete people. Therefore, after Azerbaijan's response, it will be clear how many more servicemen are being held in Azerbaijan as a result of the November 16 actions.
