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Azerbaijani State Commission: 31 missing people believed to be held hostage or captive in occupied territories

24 January 2015 10:00 (UTC +04:00)

Firudin Sadigov, Secretary of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, made remarks at the committee’s meeting on the results of the works carried out, APA reports.

It was noted that Azerbaijani citizen Javid Muzaffarzadeh, 1999, who lost his way and consequently was taken hostage after crossing into an area under the control of Armenian soldiers in the territory of Terter District on 5 September 2014, has been released through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and handed over to his family on 11 September 2014.

Necessary measures continued through the ICRC for the release of Firuz Farajov (1992) who was taken captive by Armenian soldiers in the territory of Azerbaijan’s Tovuz region on July 26, 2012, but as a result of Armenia’s destructive activity, Firuz Farajov was sent to a third country in August 2013.

With the involvement of the ICRC, the bodies of the two Azerbaijani citizens who died after hitting landmines on the frontier area with Armenia in the territory of Gazakh region were removed from the site and handed over to their relatives. Although discussions are underway with the ICRC to remove the body of an Azerbaijani citizen who reportedly died after hitting a landmine in occupied Ashaghi Askipara village of Gazakh region on October 6, 2013, this process failed as Armenia denied the issue.

Azerbaijan, respecting the norms of international humanitarian law, released 12 Armenians during the reporting period, and handed over the body another Armenian serviceman who had passed away unexpectedly while in hostage. At the same time, the Gevorkyan family consisting of 5 people who had crossed into the Republic of Azerbaijan in an illegal way on 10 January 2010 with the intention of living in a third state and since then been held in our country were all handed over to the opposite side after their appeal on voluntarily returning to the country they belong to.

Thorough investigative-search operations discovered that 35 Azerbaijani nationals have been taken captive or hostage by Armenian servicemen or Armenian terrorist units and later released through different ways. They’ve already been registered.