Sarah Reinke

Human Rights Activists in Germany Call for International Observers in Baku Trial of Armenian POWs

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BERLIN — On January 17, the trials of 23 people illegally arrested by Azerbaijan as a result of the attack on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in September 2023 began in Baku. Several German human rights organizations have warned of a politically motivated show trial and are calling for observation by German embassy staff.

“The accused are civilians, among them are eight democratically elected leaders. By imprisoning them and criminalizing them in court, Azerbaijan is turning the victims into perpetrators and concealing its own crime against Artsakh,” said Sarah Reinke, head of the human rights work of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in Göttingen.

Together with the Central Council of Armenians (ZAD), the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Working Group on Recognition, Against Genocide, for International Understanding (AGA), the Society for Threatened Peoples demands that these politically motivated trials be observed by German embassy staff.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan violently attacked Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, displacing 100,000 Armenians. This was preceded by a nine-month hunger blockade by the de facto Republic of Artsakh in violation of orders of the International Court of Justice. Human rights organizations and the international law expert Luis Moreno Ocampo assess both the blockade and the expulsion as genocide. Instead of those responsible in Azerbaijan, especially President Ilham Aliyev, being brought before an international court for this crime, a show trial against Armenians is now being staged in Baku, the spokespersons of the NGOs explain. Politics is influencing the Azerbaijani judiciary. This is characterized by systematic corruption and violations of internationally applicable laws. Judges are often expected to reflect the interests of the government, and members of the political opposition, journalists, and activists have experienced this repeatedly,  they explain.

In 2023, the German government did not put a stop to Azerbaijan when the Armenians were expelled en masse, but maintained its relations with the dictator Aliyev during and after as if nothing had happened. The human rights organizations conclude their appeal to the Foreign Office in Berlin, stressing that it is only right and proper that at least observers be sent to these trials and the immediate release of those affected be urged.

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