Dissatisfied Armenian citizen illegally crosses Azerbaijan's state border
By Aynur Jafarova
Armenian citizen Sarkis Ananyan (born 1961), unhappy with the hard social situation in his country, crossed illegally the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 26.
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry reported on September 1 that Ananyan crossed the border near the Kemerli village in Gazakh region. He was detained by the soldiers of a military unit of Azerbaijani armed forces, stationed on the front line.
Due to his health problems, Ananyan has been out of school since he was ten years old. Meanwhile he was unable to serve in the military as well. Because of the difficult situation, he was forced to engage in wage labor.
The detainee said the social situation in Armenia has come to such a point that the majority of his fellow villagers intend to go to Azerbaijan to seek asylum here.
The detained Armenian citizen is currently under medical supervision. He is being treated in accordance with international laws.
In late August, Baku transferred Armenian serviceman Akop Injigulyan to a third country.
The 23-year old Armenian soldier crossed the Azerbaijani territory in Agdam region, controlled by the Azerbaijani army, on the night of August 7 to 8.
Before Injigulyan was handed over to the third country, the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) met with him.
ICRC is also holding negotiations with Armenian and Azerbaijani sides on returning the bodies of the members of the Armenian sabotage group who attempted to cross Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line in early August, and an Azerbaijani citizen killed by Armenian forces in mid-July.
Also, Azerbaijan has appealed to IRCR to return two Azerbaijanis taken hostage by Armenian armed forces in 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.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that had caused a lengthy war in the early 1990s.
Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.