Within the framework of the PACE summer session, the Azerbaijani delegation held an event entitled 'Humanitarian issue of two civilian Azerbaijanis: Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev', dedicated to the issue of Azerbaijani civilians taken hostage in Armenia.
It was reported at the event that the hostages are held in deplorable conditions, their lives are threatened, their state of health is heavy. The participants of the event sent a statement to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Commissioner for Human Rights, urging to release the two Azerbaijani hostages. The statement was signed by the European parliamentarians and delivered to the addressees. It was published on the website of the organization.
The statement calls for the release of the Azerbaijanis and attention was drawn to the conditions in which Azerbaijanis were taken hostages.
"July 11, 2019 will mark 5 years since Azerbaijani citizens Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev were taken hostage during a visit to the graves of their relatives near the occupied Kalbadjar region of Azerbaijan. They represent hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani citizens forced to flee their native lands as a result of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. So far, we are deeply concerned about the rejection of all calls for their release. We inform you that in 2015, they appealed to the European Court of Human Rights," the statement reads.
"On June 25 this year, during the event organized by the delegation of Azerbaijan in this structure, the PACE reminded once again that Asgarov and Guliyev are in a life-threatening and hopeless situation and in order to end this situation, the international community should react sharply on the humanitarian issue regarding them. Therefore, we urge the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the PACE and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the organization to ensure the immediate and unconditional release to restore the violated rights of these two Azerbaijani hostages. We look forward to the European Court’s decision on their release," the statement further reads.
In July 2014, Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov and Azerbaijani citizen Shahbaz Guliyev were taken hostage and another Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov was shot to death by the Armenian servicemen while trying to visit their homeland in the occupied Kalbajar region. The so-called 'court' of sentenced Asgarov to life in prison, Guliyev to 22 years in prison.
