Ombudsman addressed the ICRC with regard to returning a corpse of the soldier of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces

The Azerbaijani Commissioner for human rights, E. Suleymanova addressed Mr. Peter Maurer, the President of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) about returning a corpse of Chingiz Gurbanov, a soldier of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces killed on 29 December, 2016, by the Armenian Armed Forces.

The letter states that on 29 December,2016 by committing a provocation the intelligence group of the Armenian Armed Forces tried to violate the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border. During stopping that provocation Azerbaijani soldier, Chingiz Gurbanov was went missing but later it was revealed that his corpse was on the opposite side.

The Azerbaijani side has officially addressed the ICRC Azerbaijan Office, OSCE Minsk group, including Anjey Kaspshik, personal envoy to Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE with regard to returning the corpse of the soldier. However, until today the corpse of our soldier has not been yet returned to the Azerbaijani side.   

Currently, joint efforts for returning the corpse of our soldier to Azerbaijan are being continued with the competent bodies as well as the ICRC. Eventually, according to the mass media Armenia prolongs artificially the process declaring that “the investigation” is underway. However, the mechanism and procedure of returning the corpses are sufficiently clear and it was applied before in similar cases and not only both sides, but also your organization is aware of those procedures.

We think that this act by Armenia is a severe violation of the universally recognized international law norms, human rights, as well as 1949 Geneva Conventions to which Armenia has also joined to.  

This also must be underlined that since 1994 the Armenian side has committed regular provocations in defiance of the existing cease-fire. One of such cases occurred in April of 2016. So, between 2-5 April, the territories of Azerbaijan, numerous civilian houses located at the frontline, schools and other social objects, as well as military objects of Azerbaijani armed forces located at the line of contact have been intensively fired with heavy artillery and large-caliber weapon. As a consequence, civilians, including children, women and the elderly have been murdered and heavily injured. As a consequence, these military crimes committed by the Armenian armed forces international legal documents, including Geneva Conventions have been severely violated. 

Considering the abovementioned, I ask you to assist in facilitating the return of the corpse of the soldier Chingiz Gurbanov Salman oglu within the mandate of your organization and in compliance with international legal norms, also considering the expectations of his family members and country population.