Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Russian Foreign Ministry keeps Azerbaijani hostage Dilgam Asgarov's issue in sight, the Russian foreign ministry said, responding to the letter of Azerbaijani Community of Crimea's request, the community told Trend.
The ministry puts this issue in a humanitarian aspect as part of the international mediation efforts, said the message.
"In connection with your appeal to Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, regarding the assistance to Dilgam Asgarov, we state that this topic is in the Russian foreign ministry's sight," the response letter said.
"We put this issue in a humanitarian aspect as part of the international mediation efforts. However, it should be stressed that Asgarov's Russian citizenship has not been confirmed yet. This issue is being checked."
The response letter has been prepared by the fourth department of the Commonwealth of Independent States of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
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, the so-called court in Nagorno-Karabakh 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 four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
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