Baku says Armenia’s detention of Azerbaijani servicemen ‘blow’ to confidence-building process

The detention of two Azerbaijani servicemen by Armenia is another blow to the confidence-building process, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told journalists on Monday, News.Az reports.

The top diplomat noted that the issue related to the Azerbaijani servicemen captured by Armenia was discussed at bilateral meetings with Armenian representatives.

The minister reminded that Armenia detained these military men and opened a criminal case against them. A sentence has already been passed against one of them: 11 and a half years in prison.

“First of all, I would like to note that during our bilateral meetings with the Armenian side and also in meetings with international mediators and with representatives of other states we drew everyone's attention to this issue. We put on the agenda the issue of how this case was perceived as a complete violation of previous agreements and the importance of influencing Armenia in this direction. Because, as you know, recently there has been an agreement between the two countries that the return of the military who crossed the border by mistake is important, and it can be seen as a confidence-building measure between the parties," he stressed.

As a result of that agreement, the Azerbaijani side returned a total of over 10 Armenian military and civilians, Bayramov said.

"We think that the step taken by Armenia is another blow to the confidence-building measures under the agreement. We think it is a very wrong development, a very dangerous development. And we will continue our efforts in that direction," the minister added.

To recall, Azerbaijani soldiers - Agshin Gabil oglu Babirov (born in 2004) and Huseyn Ahliman oglu Akhundov (born in 2003) got lost in bad weather in the direction of the Shahbuz region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and accidentally ended up on the territory of Armenia, where they were detained. Video footage of the torture of the Azerbaijani soldiers by Armenians has been circulated on social networks.

News.Az 

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