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Azerbaijan mulls release of hostages in Armenian captivity at all int’l meetings

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 14 February 2018 08:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 14

By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:

The Azerbaijani State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People holds regular meetings and discussions with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Eldar Samadov, deputy head of the working group of the State Commission, said in an interview with Trend.

“The issue related to Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov, taken hostage in July 2014 by Armenian servicemen in Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar district occupied by Armenia, was discussed during those meetings,” he said. “The issue of releasing Azerbaijani citizen Elnur Huseynzade, taken hostage by Armenian servicemen on the line of contact of troops near Talish village of Azerbaijan’s Tartar district on Feb. 1, 2017 under unknown circumstances, was also discussed.”

“The issue connected with Armenian serviceman Arsen Baghdasaryan, who was detained while making attempted sabotage on the contact line of troops in Azerbaijan’s Aghdam district on Dec. 26, 2014 and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment upon the decision of an Azerbaijani court on May 5, 2015, as well as the issue related to Armenian citizen Zaver Karapetyan, who was detained in Azerbaijan on June 20, 2017, were also discussed during the meetings,” he added.

Samadov said the issue of releasing Asgarov and Guliyev was raised at all meetings with international organizations.

"During the meeting held upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s instructions with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer in Geneva in December 2015, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov asked to help Asgarov and Guliyev to communicate with family members by using modern communication devices,” Samadov said.

“This issue was thoroughly discussed during the meeting with the ICRC representatives in November 2016,” he said. “A mutual agreement was reached to create the same conditions for Baghdasaryan, who is being detained in Azerbaijan.”

“According to the mutual agreement reached in February 2017, the video messages of Asgarov, Guliyev and Baghdasaryan were handed over to their families, while the families’ video messages were sent to the places of their detention,” he said. “This is the first case in the history of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which was used for the detained people.”

Samadov added that work is underway to release Asgarov and Guliyev upon President Aliyev’s instructions.

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