Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday that the country is investigating alleged war crimes committed by Armenian and Azerbaijani forces during six weeks of fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics, have been involved in a territorial conflict since they gained independence in the 1990s. Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but is historically an ethnic Armenian region, has been the focal point of the conflict between the two nations.
More than 2,000 people have died since the fighting broke out on September 27, including many civilians. Fighting has surged to its worst level since the 1990s, when about 30,000 people were killed.
During the latest fighting, videos circulated on social media that allegedly showed executions of Armenian prisoners of war by Azerbaijani troops. Azerbaijan’s prosecutor-general Kamran Aliyev said that his office has “initiated an investigation into inhumane treatment of Armenian servicemen that were taken prisoner”.
“There are many fake videos. But we must say frankly that there also are videos which could be authentic. Azerbaijan is a law-based state and we are reacting to such facts”, he said, adding that Azerbaijan had also initiated 73 criminal cases of Armenian forces shelling civilian targets in Azerbaijan.
