Armenia will not allow the equation between a victim of a war crime and the criminal, Ambassador at-Large Edmon Marukyan said in a statement in response to a tweet by EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar.
“EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar tweeted that today he has received several videos allegedly showing war crimes committed against Azerbaijan. He emphasized that these videos are yet to be investigated and authenticated, so that the real perpetrators are held accountable also, and he also noted that the conflict has left deep wounds on both sides.
It’s clear what’s happening, isn’t it? As soon as irrefutable evidence surfaces on war crimes committed by Azerbaijan, in order to counter it Azerbaijan quickly presents false accusations of war crimes allegedly committed by the Armenian side during the 44-Day War of 2020. Soon thereafter an equal sign is put between the victim and the criminal (as if both sides have done the same).
Moreover, it is simply completely unreasonable to try and compare any incident that happened at large-scale wartime with an explicit war crime committed during the discussions of a draft peace treaty.
I am sure that the Armenian forces have never committed such war crimes; there can’t even be any edge of comparison with everything we saw in the horrific video showing Azeri extrajudicial killings of Armenian prisoners of war. We will not allow the equation between a victim of a war crime and the criminal,” Marukyan said.
The footage of the gruesome killings of Armenian PoWs by Azeri troops was posted online in Azeri social media.
The authenticity of the video has been validated by the Human Rights Defender and the Defense Ministry using video data base material, comparative analyses of terrain, weather conditions, conversations and uniforms of the troops.
Earlier on October 2, following the release of the video showing the killings of Armenian PoWs by Azeri troops, Klaar had tweeted: “Another horrible video has emerged of Armenian prisoners of war apparently being executed. If this video is proven to be authentic then this is a war crime that needs to be investigated and the perpetrators punished."
