BBC: Azerbaijan tortured soldiers when looking for Armenian spiesNovember 27, 2019 - 17:37 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Dozens of torture victims, 25 people accused of treason and nine who died from torture – this is the result of the Azerbaijani army inquiries in 2017 about espionage in favor of Armenia. The paper says more than a hundred soldiers have become victims of torture in the Azerbaijani army. Almost nothing was known about the story since the trials of soldiers took place behind closed doors. In May 2017, the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan, the State Security Service, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a joint statement to report the detention of soldiers "on charges of espionage in favor of the Armenian special services." And that was all the official information. The public learnt about the mass torture of May–June 2017 only in 2019, when the details of the case gradually began to be revealed. The case is today known as the “Tartar case”, based on the name of the region where the soldiers were brought for inquiries. According to human rights activist Oktay Gulalyev, Nine people died in the torture chamber. By the way, no criminal proceedings were launched against five of them. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Ucom General Director gives lecture at French University in Armenia The General Director of Ucom Ralph Yirikian delivered a lecture at the French University of Armenia. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. |