Azernews.Az

By Jamila Babayeva

The fate of Azerbaijani citizens taken hostages in the occupied Kalbajar region is in the spotlight, the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People reported.

Armenian media had previously spread information as well as photos and videos about the Azerbaijani citizens taken hostage in the Kalbajar region, which has been under Armenia's occupation since 1993.

The commission has already informed the international organizations about the refugees conditions and demanded holding an investigation into the matter under international humanitarian and legal norms.

Works are underway to clarify the identities of the refugees. As soon as more information is available, the commission will distribute publicly.

Earlier, Armenian media reported that the Azerbaijani citizens were detained in territories occupied by Armenian armed forces. The citizens were represented by these media as soldiers, but the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry rejected as baseless the reports.

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 caused a brutal war in the early 1990s.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the US and the OSCE Minsk Group are underway on the basis of a peaceful outline -called Madrid Principle -proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.