Defense Ministry says Azerbaijani hostages not violated int'l laws
By Jamila Babayeva
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry has rejected as baseless Armenian media reports that Azerbaijan's army is sowing seeds of discord in the occupied territories.
Earlier, Armenian media quoted Armenia's Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian as saying that Azerbaijan's army is sowing seeds of discords in occupied territories with the help of criminals.
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said the occupied territories belong to Azerbaijan noting that Azerbaijani citizens cannot be expelled from these areas.
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. They were represented as soldiers by Armenian media but the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry dismissed the reports.
The ministry emphasized that despite Armenian side's claims, the Azerbaijani citizens did not violate the state border "as the lands under the control of the occupational regime, are the territories of Azerbaijan recognized by the UN."
"The criminal Armenian leadership including Ohanyan who committed acts of violence against Azerbaijan and played a key role in Khojaly genocide, will be put on trial soon at an international scale," the ministry said.
The ministry also said that the Azerbaijani armed forces can perform any mission and conduct any operation without the involvement of its civilians.
Meanwhile, the families of Azerbaijani hostages have officially called the International Committee of the Red Cross to address their problem.
"Currently, the committee continues negotiations with the sides on this issue," Baku Office's Public Relations Department head Ilaha Huseynova told Trend news agency.
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.