Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 26
By Ilkin Izzet - Trend:
The employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the Azerbaijanis taken hostage by Armenians in the Armenian-occupied Kalbajar district, the Head of Communication Department at ICRC's Delegation in Azerbaijan Ilaha Huseynova told Trend Aug. 26.
She said the visit's aim was to get familiar with conditions of detention of Azerbaijani hostages, as well as to provide exchange of information with their families.
During an operation in the Shaplar village of Azerbaijan's occupied Kalbajar district on July 11, 2014 Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained two other Azerbaijanis, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov. A criminal case was filed against them.
Afterwards, a "court" sentenced Asgarov to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years in prison.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.