Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan informed on his Facebook page that he has transmitted to Pope Francis three reports on the torture of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan.

“In these photos I am presenting to Pope Francis the tortures of Armenian prisoners of war by the Azerbaijanis.

Before the meeting, the Protocol Service of the Holy See informed that there is almost no dialogue during the handshaking and that it is only possible to greet each other for a maximum 1-2 minutes.

When Pope Francis approached me, the Catholicos of All Armenians introduced me and said I had a special remark to make. At that moment, first, I expressed my gratitude to Pope Francis for his statements for cessation of the war that Azerbaijan had unleashed against Artsakh and for the release of Armenian prisoners of war detained in Azerbaijan. Then, I mentioned that some Armenian prisoners of war are illegally detained in Azerbaijan and their life is under threat, and I talked about Azerbaijan’s violations against the people living on the borders of Armenia. I also mentioned that I had brought reports proving all this and transmitted them to the Pope.

Pope Francis took the reports, opened them, leafed the papers and saw the photos of the cruelties. He thanked me for the important reports and said he had discussed the matter with the Catholicos of All Armenians as well.

Later, during the welcoming, once again, Pope Francis thanked me for the important work and for transmitting the reports. He also assigned his assistant to explore the reports and present them to him separately.

I transmitted three reports to Pope Francis, including the report on the so-called “war trophy park” which is a museum of human sufferings under an open sky and is based on Armenophobia. The second report presents, with substantiated evidence, Azerbaijan’s responsibility for torturing Armenian prisoners of war, and the third report is about the ban on making the testimonies of prisoners of war lie at the core of a criminal case.

The report shows, with evidence, that the Azerbaijani authorities have instituted sham trials against the Armenian prisoners of war, based on the testimonies that were obtained through tortures and inhumane treatment.”