Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

A high-ranking Azerbaijani government official criticized the Armenian president for revealing details of the meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in the Russian resort town of Sochi last week.

Ali Hasanov, the head of Public and Political Issues Department of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration has criticized Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan for violating a mutual agreement and revealing some details of the issues discussed at the closed-door presidential meeting.

Hasanov said the Armenian president had misconstrued some of the facts.

"But the most deplorable thing is that he distorts the demonstrated position and the issues raised by the sides at the meeting and falsifies them in accordance with his subjective opinions and Armenia's interests," Hasanov said in his interview with AzerTAc news agency.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian President Sargsyan met on August 10 to discuss different ways to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

This was the 12th meeting between the presidents held at the direct initiative of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries. The Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents met last time in Vienna last November.

"Of course, these actions do not do him credit as the president of the country. If these facts had to be made ​​public after the meeting, the presidents would have held a press conference and commented on all the issues. Only such individuals as Sargsyan may publicize the discussed issues in a distorted way with his subjective opinion and interests added after returning back to his country in an effort to become a "false hero"," Hasanov said.

He expressed regret that this move by Sargsyan forced Azerbaijan to issue a statement about the closed-door meeting.

Hasanov noted that during the meeting held with the participation of Russian President Putin, the Azerbaijani president discussed the issue of two Azerbaijani hostages captured by Armenian troops in the occupied Kalbajar region.

Three Azerbaijani civilians (Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov, Azerbaijani citizens Shahbaz Guliyev and Hasan Hasanov) were detained by Armenian forces in early July while they were visiting the graves of their late relatives. ICRC Baku office earlier reported that Hasan Hasanov was buried in Nagorno-Karabakh after being killed by Armenian forces.

One of the hostages is a Russian citizen, and his family made an appeal to the Russian president.

"During the meeting, the Azerbaijani president handed over the appeal to President Putin and raised an issue of release of the hostages," Hasanov stressed.

President Aliyev believes that the Armenians without any reason presented these Kalbajar residents as "dangerous subversives" and created an ugly show in media around this issue, according to Hasanov.

He said those two people using their civil rights, as their families say, have visited their hometowns under the Armenian occupation for many years to pay tribute to their parents' graves. "Given that one of them is a citizen of Russia, it is natural that President Aliyev asked President Putin to state his position on this issue, and no doubt this is aimed at an unconditional release of civilians," Hasanov underscored.

He said that during the trilateral meeting the Azerbaijani president demanded an unconditional return of the dead bodies of soldiers and civilians killed by Armenian armed forces in the occupied zone and on the contact line.

During the meeting President Aliyev addressing Sargsyan said, "Even in the days of Hitler, the fascists did not commit those crimes which the Armenian occupant soldiers commit against the hostages and dead bodies in the frontline region. One cannot be so disrespectful towards a corpse, it is inhumane."

Hasanov stressed that the president demanded an immediate return of the dead bodies to their families.

"While failing to find significant arguments against the Azerbaijani president's such opinion, Sargsyan pointed at Azerbaijan's propaganda over the return of the corpse of Mubariz Ibrahimov, who courageously passed a minefield in the frontline region in June 2010, killed numerous enemies by their own weapons and died heroically in an unequal battle," Hasanov added. "Sargsyan accused the Azerbaijanis of presenting Ibrahimov as a hero and insulting the feelings of the Armenians this way."

President Aliyev in a response said the war has its own laws. "We did not present Ibrahimov as a hero. He single-handedly destroyed the trench, defended by the Armenian soldiers, killed more than a dozen occupiers and died heroically. According to the war laws, the sides must respect the heroes. Mubariz Ibrahimov demonstrated true heroism and rightly received the title of National Hero," President Aliyev said at the meeting.

Hasanov noted that Azerbaijani president urged the Armenian counterpart to treat the heroes respectively.

He further said Sargsyan deliberately tries to hide the losses of the Armenian occupying army as a result of the recent reconnaissance and sabotage operations, and wants to disguise this fact.

Armenia began to escalate tensions on the border areas on July 31. Sporadic fighting has continued ever since. Fourteen Azerbaijani servicemen were killed and several others injured during the clashes between two sides. Armenia hasn't released yet the exact number of casualties.

"Nevertheless, all local and foreign sources confirm that Armenia has lost about 50 people during the recent operations. Armenia's military and political circles will fail to hide losses. Sargsyan would be better to take care of his countrymen, who have been recently leaving the country, scattering around the world in search of work and bread instead of continuing such subversive acts causing a direct blow on further peace in the South Caucasus and holding the Armenian people as hostage of the war," Hasanov concluded.