Azerbaijan urges ICRC to increase efforts for releasing Azerbaijani hostages
Azerbaijan has urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to increase the efforts for releasing its citizens Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev taken hostage by Armenian militaries.
Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov has voiced Baku’s request at a meeting with ICRC president Peter Maurer in Geneva, Azertac reports
In turn, Peter Maurer said the ICRC is regularly visiting Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov and will continue its humanitarian activities in this regard in accordance with its mandate.
He also expressed hope for an early political solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at a meeting with.
Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained Guliyev and Asgarov while they were attempting to visit the graves of their relatives in July 2014.
Guliyev and Asgarov have been judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of a separatist regime in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited “judicial process" in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.
Khalafov further informed the ICRC president that Armenia has been shelling Azerbaijan’s densely populated residential areas along the contact line since 2 April 2016, which resulted in the death of numerous military and civilian casualties and damage to public and private property.
The sides also noted the ICRC’s intermediary role in the handing over on 10 April 2016 of the bodies of those killed in the latest fighting at the contact line.
They exchanged views on the current state and future prospects of the existing relations between Azerbaijan and the ICRC.
The situation on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops has again aggravated despite the ceasefire agreement that was reached with the mediation of Russia on April 5. Thus, the Armenian military units have shelled Azerbaijan’s Terter district, including Gapanli village on April 26 from 01:05 to 04:25 (UTC/GMT +4 hours).
The long-lasting Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict remains unresolved due to the continuation of Armenia’s occupant policy. Yerevan has not yet implemented the UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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