Azerbaijan, Baku, May 6 / Trend, S.Agayeva /
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry does not intend to comment on unconfirmed information of the Iranian media outlets regarding Azerbaijani citizens detained in this country, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's spokesman Elman Abdullayev told Trend on Monday.
On Sunday Iranian media outlets reported that allegedly Azerbaijani citizen - research fellow of the Institute of Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi of the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), scientist-orientalist Khalida Khalid, who was detained by Iranian law enforcement agencies, is accused of spying.
According to Abdullayev, Iranian side has not yet responded to Azerbaijan's note regarding the detention of Khalida Khalid and providing information on her location. Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran and Consulate General in Tebriz work in this direction on the instructions of the country's Foreign Ministry, he said.
"Fate of our citizens is always a priority for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and the government will do everything in order to ensure the rights of its citizens. We hope that Iranian Foreign Ministry will inform us regarding the detention of Khalida Khalid in the short-time period," Abdullayev said.
Azerbaijani citizens - research fellow of the Institute of Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi of the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), scientist-orientalist Khalida Khalid and her assistant Shamkhal Huseynov were detained in Iran by the country's law enforcement bodies in Tabriz on Tuesday, Iranian media outlets reported earlier.
Consulate General sent a note on this matter to the relevant authorities in Iran, which demanded the Iranian side to clarify the details of the detention of Azerbaijani citizens and provide information on their location in the near future.
Employees of the North-Western department of the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tabriz confirmed the detention of Azerbaijani citizens to the Consulate General.
Deputy Director of the Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Muharram Gasymly confirmed reports of the detention of the Institute's Junior Research Fellow Khalida Khalid in Iran on Wednesday.
Khalida left on April 26 without a permit. She neither consulted with the leadership of the Institute about her departure, nor arranged a business trip, he said.
Shamkhal Huseynov, who was also detained, was released yesterday.