Starting from October 2, videos of what appears to be war crimes by Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers have been circulating on social media channels in both countries. The footages, in which prisoners of war on each side are being killed by the other, are presumed to be filmed during the most recent flare-up along the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border on September 12-14.
One video illustrates a moment when several captured Armenian soldiers are surrounded by Azerbaijanis and shot dead thereafter, while a voice shouting “Stop the shooting” is heard in Azerbaijani, presumably by a commander of the Azerbaijani unit.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry released a statement, demanding “a clear assessment of the appalling war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces in this and previous periods”.
We will consistently pursue to voice the issue in relevant international platforms and courts and bring to justice the perpetrators and organizers of the above-mentioned crimes, including by the application of international sanctions.
Foreign Ministry of Armenia
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, in response, called the statement from Yerevan “an example of the hypocrisy of a country that has pursued an aggressive policy for decades, trampled on the fundamental rights of nearly a million people, and committed numerous war crimes against military personnel, as well as civilians” and went on to count Armenian war crimes, including the Khojali massacre of 1992, missile attacks on Azerbaijani cities during the 2020 war, and landmines in Karabakh still causing deaths. The Ministry added that on September 17, the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan announced “the beginning of a comprehensive investigation to determine whether the videos posted on social networks are real, the time and place where the videos were filmed, as well as the identity of the military personnel reflected in them”, referring to earlier videos of war crimes from the same flare-up.
