Azernews.Az

By Arslan Abbasov

The Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Tabriz is scrutinizing the media reports on the detention of Azerbaijani citizens in Iran.

The detainees are research fellow of the Institute of Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi of the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), scientist-orientalist Khalida Khalid and her assistant.

The Consulate General learned about the detention of the Azerbaijani citizens from media publications and the matter is currently under investigation, the consulate told Trend news agency on Wednesday.

The Azerbaijani citizens were arrested in Tabriz on Tuesday by employees of the Ministry of Information, Security and Intelligence of Iran, Iranian media reported. Their current location is unknown.

The Institute of Literature of Azerbaijan's Academy of Sciences has confirmed that these persons are employed by the institute.

Deputy Director of the Institute of Literature Muharram Gasymly said that Khalid left on April 26 without permission. She neither consulted with the leadership of the Institute about her departure, nor arranged a business trip, he said.

"After that, we received no word from her. The department chief thought she was sick. However, later it became known that she had left for Iran without authorization," Gasymly said.

Khalida Khalid is a junior research assistant in the department of literature of foreign countries and foreign literary relations of the Institute of Literature with no academic degree, Gasymly said.

The Deputy Director expressed doubt that Khalida Khalid's activities could possibly be the subject of suspicions to the Ministry of Information, Security and Intelligence of Iran.

"This issue will be clarified. She was a regular employee of the Institute. She left for Iran without informing anyone," Gasymly said.

He expressed hope that the incident would be examined by the Foreign Ministry.