Azernews.Az

Ali Hasanov, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Refugees and IDPs has met Elena Ajmone Sessera, the new head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Azerbaijan and the ex-head of the ICRC office in Azerbaijan, Denise Duran.

Congratulating Sessera on her new appointment, Ali Hasanov said her mission would be successful in development of relations between Azerbaijan and ICRC, Azertac state news agency reported.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, its history, the plight of refugees and IDPs in the country was the topic of discussions in Baku.

The sides also mulled the release of Azerbaijanis Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov, who were groundlessly taken hostage by the Armenian Armed Forces in Kalbajar region.

“I have recently attended an international event in Geneva, where I met with the ICRC president solely for the issue of our hostages. I discussed the issue with him and he promised to step up efforts for it. I asked the ICRC president to organize online communication between Dilgam and Shahbaz and their family members on Skype. Necessary work is underway to organize communication between the hostages and their family member,” Hasanov said.

Expressing gratitude for detailed information, the new head of the ICRC delegation highly appreciated the works to alleviate the plight of refugees and IDPs in the country, the development and progress she watched here.

Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and detained Guliyev and Asgarov while they were attempting to visit the graves of their relatives in July 2014.

Guliyev and Asgarov have been judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of a separatist regime in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited “judicial process" in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.

A number of international organizations, as well as Baku, repeatedly urged Yerevan to start peaceful negotiations on this issue and to free the hostages, the Armenian side remained deaf. Furthermore, the Armenian side ignoring all calls and violating the international rules and norms was subjecting the hostages to various tortures.

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