{"id":1071,"date":"2025-04-08T23:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/?p=1071"},"modified":"2025-04-09T23:20:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T23:20:21","slug":"coe-human-rights-commissioner-oflaherty-highlights-plight-of-armenian-prisoners-in-azerbaijan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/?p=1071","title":{"rendered":"CoE Human Rights Commissioner O\u2019Flaherty highlights plight of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 April 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While addressing members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Monday, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O\u2019Flaherty stated that the situation of Nagorno-Karabakh prisoners in Azerbaijan had to be \u2018a matter of very high priority\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement came as part of a Q&A session held after O\u2019Flaherty presented his first annual report to the assembled MPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Q&A session, Armen Gevorgyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE,\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0O\u2019Flaherty what actions he was prepared to take to \u2018assess the human rights violations already committed, to prevent further abuses, and to ensure fair treatment and protection of Armenian prisoners in Baku in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, O\u2019Flaherty stated that he was already in discussions with the Azerbaijani government to visit the country, though they were still \u2018seeking a time\u2019 that would work for both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019ve approached them now twice, I will return a third time and a fourth time, but I do want to visit the country to engage all the human rights issues of people on the territory\u2019, O\u2019Flaherty said, noting that that was as much as he could say regarding the question beyond assuring Gevorgyan that he was \u2018by no means neglecting\u2019 the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later during the session, O\u2019Flaherty responded to comments by Civil Contract faction MP Arusyak Julhakyan, noting that it was important to protect the human rights of everybody in the region, \u2018including ensuring that those who wish to return to [Nagorno-Karabakh] are free to do so\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018This will be critical to the future, \u2019 O\u2019Flaherty emphasised, while also encouraging Armenians to \u2018continue to give a warm welcome to those people you have received from [Nagorno-Karabakh]\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to O\u2019Flaherty\u2019s comments, Azerbaijani pro-government media outlet\u00a0Azernews\u00a0<\/em>published<\/a>\u00a0a critique by the so-called Western Azerbaijan Community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Western Azerbaijan\u2019 is an irredentist concept commonly used by the Azerbaijani authorities to lay claim to the territory of modern-day Armenia. The Western Azerbaijan Community gained prominence following the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War when it was popularised by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It is unacceptable that the High Commissioner addresses the issue of the return of Armenians to Azerbaijan and does not mention the return of Western Azerbaijanis to their ancestral homeland in Armenia. We call on the High Commissioner not to be held hostage to the deeply rooted double standards policy in a number of Western institutions regarding human rights,’ the community\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They additionally urged O\u2019Flaherty to \u2018instead call on Armenia to prosecute war criminals within its own territory\u2019, noting that it was a double standard that he remained \u2018silent on justice for Azerbaijani victims\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Azerbaijan has officially acknowledged its custody of 23 Armenian prisoners, including former Nagorno-Karabakh state officials. Previously, in March, Armenia\u00a0claimed<\/a>\u00a0Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan had been subjected to torture, citing evidence observed in photos published by Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2022\u00a0After years in academia, Xandie returned to Georgia to join OC Media. Her previous work with non-profits focused on Eurasian affairs, particularly queer and gender rights and green politics. She\u2019s also a fan of foreign cinema, tea, and books (but not spilling tea on books).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OC-Media<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning 8 April 2025 While addressing members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Monday, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O\u2019Flaherty stated that the situation of Nagorno-Karabakh prisoners in Azerbaijan had to be \u2018a matter of very high priority\u2019. The statement came as part of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy","category-english","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1073,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions\/1073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}