On June 25, a side event was held in connection with the Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev within the framework of the Summer Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. PACE members, representatives of international human rights organizations, human rights defenders, members of civil society and mass media participated in the event, organized by the official delegation of Azerbaijan to PACE.
Speaking about the humanitarian consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, chairman of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Mr. Samad Seyidov informed about the Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons and noted that Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev are in Armenian captivity for 5 years.
Later, Azerbaijan’s authorized representative in the European Court of Human Rights, Mr. Chingiz Asgarov spoke about the ongoing communication process at the European Court of Human Rights in connection with the Azerbaijani hostages.
Mr. Fuad Huseynov, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Affairs of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons of the Republic of Azerbaijan, said that Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons had been expelled from their homeland for 30 years and that Armenia’s aggressive policy led to humanitarian disaster in the region.
Chairman of the International Dialogue and Development Alliance Mrs. Nushaba Mammadova spoke about the work done to protect the rights of Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev. Kurdoghlu Asgarov, the son of Azerbaijani hostage Dilgam Asgarov, appealed to PACE members, saying that his father has been under constant torture for five years and that he has not received any information from his father for last 1 year 8 months.
Speaking at the event, the head of the Information Center for Azerbaijani Captives and Hostages, human rights defender Ahmad Shahidov, underlined the existing double standards in the European institutions and said that he can not understand the international human rights institutions’s silence on the Azerbaijani hostages.
At the end of the event a resolution was adopted on the immediately release of Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev and PACE members unanimously signed the resolution.
