Baku violates the rights of Artsakh officials. Siranush Sahakyan

I exclude free expression in the interviews given by the former military-political leadership of Artsakh illegally held in Baku, they are under real and immediate threats to their lives and understandably, they are forced to participate in interviews. Siranush Sahakyan, president of the Center for International and Comparative Law, said this in a conversation with NEWS.am.

"Here, it is very important to clarify the issue of whether the mentioned persons are giving interviews of their own free will and desire. If the desire and initiative does not come from these officials, then we are dealing with many violations of rights. It is clear that they hardly had great motivations, desires and dreams to give interviews while they were in prison in Azerbaijan. I rule out free will, all of them are under real and immediate threats to their lives and understandably, they are forced to participate in interviews," he said.

According to Siranush Sahakyan, from the point of view of human rights, we are dealing with coercion, which can also have psychological manifestations. "When there is no personal desire, but a person's image, voice, and movement are used, interfering with his right to the privacy of his private life, it is a violation. And thirdly, these officials are forced to give statements that are not consistent with their thoughts, conscience and views, including political ones. At least from the point of view of their activities, we know that they acted in the interest of the self-determination of Artsakh and I am sure that other points of view will be heard in the interviews. Here we also face violations of the right to freedom of speech, because they are forced to express views against their beliefs and ideology."

He emphasized that their will is limited and they participate in these interviews through coercion. "There is a clear violation of the right to freedom of speech here. When a person does not want to express a point of view, but is forced to, then inevitably there are violations of the right to freedom of speech and the right to privacy, but the most important thing is that these violations are the result of inhumane treatment, coercion, pressure, which can have psychological manifestations. And I can say, based on our experience, that we have many such documented cases, when, for example, they poured fuel on a person before the interview and threatened to burn him with a match if the person did not utter the mentioned words. And similar measures have been applied to innocent abducted civilians, military personnel, prisoners of war, even persons in vulnerable groups.

When asked what Armenia should do in this case, Sahakyan said:

"In terms of the legal process here, the complaints should be completed and these new manifestations of violations of the law should be reflected in the complaints. And of course, human rights violations cannot be prevented or excluded in Azerbaijan. The only real support is to achieve their release through active diplomatic and political work. Armenia should be found very intensively in order to ensure the return in the shortest possible time through political and diplomatic ways. But here, to be honest, the developments and results are not particularly encouraging."

It should be noted that the Azerbaijani state media is preparing a documentary film, in which they will present interviews with the captured former military and political leadership of Artsakh. The Azerbaijanis interviewed General Levon Mnatsakanyan, the former commander of the Artsakh Defense Army, and Araik Harutyunyan, the former president of Artsakh, who is illegally held in Baku prison. Over the weekend, Azerbaijani media published footage from an interview with Arayik Harutyunyan, and a little while ago footage from an interview with Levon Mnatsakanyan was published on social networks. It is not known under what conditions the Azerbaijanis forced the former leaders of Artsakh to speak.

So far, it is not clear whether there are also interviews with other high-ranking officials held in Baku in the so-called documentary film. It is noted that the film will be shown on March 28 at 9:00 p.m.

Former Minister of State of Artsakh, former Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan warns: Aliyev's regime not only kidnapped the leadership of Artsakh, but also hindered their legal defense, and now the former leaders of Artsakh are being forced to give an interview.