Expert blog: Baku makes futile efforts to salvage situation

The Azerbaijani mass media released yet another video of 77-year-old Armenian citizen Mamikon Khojoyan who crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the Tavush direction.

Although the Azerbaijani side attempted to show that it is guided by humanitarian considerations and acts according to the provisions concerning the treatment of POWs, the scene of the Armenian POW’s medical examination in the video is followed by a scene (a 42-second one) where violence is being used against M. Khojoyan. In particular, the video shows a man in Azerbaijani military uniform pushing M. Khojoyan and drawing him aside.

The Azerbaijani media is trying to prove that their country is guided by humanitarian approaches under some provision of the Geneva Convention or other, but in reality Azerbaijan follows the principle of ‘one step forward, two steps back’.

On the one hand Azerbaijan releases a video about the prisoner’s medical examination, which is in line with provisions of the Geneva Convention, while on the other hand it conducts an interview with him and spreads it through the mass media, which contradicts the same convention.

The circumstances, in which the prisoner Mamikon Khojoyan’s hand was broken, remain unclear. At first Azerbaijan claimed that Khojoyan is allegedly a saboteur who was detained thanks to ‘vigilance’ of Azerbaijani servicemen. It should be mentioned that the version about 77-year-old Armenian saboteur caused laughter and sarcasm even in the Azerbaijani press.

The first statement of the Azerbaijani defense ministry said that local residents noticed M. Khojoyan and turned him over to servicemen. According to the next statement, Khojoyan was detained by servicemen.

Later the Azerbaijani defense ministry adopted a version, by which there was fighting between the Armenian saboteurs and the Azerbaijani frontier guards, during which M. Khojoyan was wounded. Yet during the ‘impartial interview’ organized by the Azerbaijani side, Khojoyan says he is a wine-grower, after which the Azerbaijani commentator makes off-screen comments that Khojoyan confessed he is an employee of the National Security Service. The same commentator notes that Khojoyan broke his hand because he fell.

By the way, Azerbaijan continues to say that Khojoyan is a prisoner of war, a member of Armenian special services. Yet the Azerbaijani side ought to know that the Geneva Convention includes provisions about protection of both civilian captives and POWs.

It is also noteworthy that amid the January 20 sabotage of Azerbaijani side, renewed activity of snipers, and the Azerbaijani family’s request for political asylum, the international community is in confusion and cannot seem to decide how to react to the current developments and what statements to make. One gains such an impression from the interested parties’ one or two statements that say nothing.