“Azerbaijan has returned all the detainees to Armenia, and the remained ones are accused of serious crimes,” said Elnur Mammadov, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan during his speech at hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that based on preliminary objections raised by Azerbaijan, Paralel.Az reports.

He stressed that the claims of racial discrimination raised by Armenia against Azerbaijan are groundless. “All prisoners of war, as well as most of the detainees, were repatriated to Armenia. The rest are still in prison either for serious crimes, including torture and murder, or are currently detained for being accused of war crimes, terrorism and separatism. In other words, their ongoing detention has nothing to do with racial discrimination. Similarly, Armenia's accusations on the forced removal of Armenians have nothing to do with racial discrimination. But Azerbaijan takes these claims seriously and cooperates with Armenia in order to ensure transparency, clarity, and mutual trust,” – Elnur Mammadov said.