Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 3
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
During the session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Kyrgyzstan, the Azerbaijani delegation will voice views on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the release of Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, Vice-Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Bahar Muradova said in Baku on Oct. 3.
“The issue of Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, taken hostage by the Armenian side, is constantly raised within international events,” Muradova stressed. “The appeals are being made to release Azerbaijanis convicted upon the “laws” of the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.”
“Unfortunately, there is no progress on the issue,” she said.
Muradova added that the voiced opinions remain unheard without concrete mechanisms and real pressure.
"Nevertheless, I think that the issue must not be removed from the agenda,” she said. “Azerbaijan will constantly focus on this issue. The efforts should be made to take serious measures to return people, whose mobility in their country is restricted, to their homes."
During an operation in July 2014 in the Shaplar village of Azerbaijani Kalbajar district, occupied by Armenia, the Armenian special forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and took hostage two other Azerbaijanis, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov. A "criminal case" was initiated 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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.