Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr S. Agayeva / Firudin Sadigov, the head of the Azerbaijani working group on POWs, hostages and the missing persons, accuses Armenia of exerting the pressure upon the Azerbaijani hostages and the prisoners of the war.
"Many of the Azerbaijanis who were released from the Armenian imprisonment, proved this fact," Sadigov said. He cited as an example, the lingering in releasing the Azerbaijani POW Samir Mammadov, who was captured by Armenians on 24 Dec 2006. "His so-called refusal to write letters to his parents is a proof of the fact that the Armenians exert pressure upon him". According to Sadigov, Azerbaijan is working with the international organizations for the release Mammadov.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighbouring districts. In 1994, a ceasefire agreement signed by Azerbaijan and Armenia ended the active hostilities. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding the peaceful negotiations.
