Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 3
Trend:
Azerbaijan’s president, as well as the foreign ministry and other agencies of Azerbaijan constantly keep in focus the issue of releasing Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, taken hostage by Armenians, said Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
“This issue is constantly being discussed with co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and other participants of the negotiations,” he told Trend November 3. “According to the information obtained from various sources, Asgarov and Guliyev are alive and feel well.”
Hajiyev added Armenia’s still holding civilians as hostages, showing such inhumanity, is another example of Yerevan’s gross violation of international humanitarian legal commitments undertaken under the relevant conventions.
“Instead of contributing to settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia imposes negative impact on the negotiations by such provocative actions,” Hajiyev added.
During an operation in July 2014 in 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.