Top diplomat: Armenia's detention of Azerbaijani servicemen blow to confidence building

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said that Armenia's detention of Azerbaijani troops is another blow to confidence building in accordance with the agreement.

The military crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border due to difficult weather conditions, Bayramov told journalists, adding that the issue was discussed both bilaterally and at other meetings, APA reports.

The minister reminded that Armenia detained these military men and opened a criminal case against them. A sentence has already been passed against one of them: 11 and a half years in prison.

"First of all, I would like to note that during our bilateral meetings with the Armenian side and also in meetings with international mediators and with representatives of other states we drew everyone's attention to this issue. We put on the agenda the issue of how this case was perceived as a complete violation of previous agreements and the importance of influencing Armenia in this direction. Because, as you know, recently there has been an agreement between the two countries that the return of the military who crossed the border by mistake is important, and it can be seen as a confidence-building measure between the parties," he stressed.

As a result of that agreement, the Azerbaijani side returned a total of over 10 Armenian military and civilians, Bayramov added.

"We think that the step taken by Armenia is another blow to the confidence-building measures under the agreement. We think it is a very wrong development, a very dangerous development. And we will continue our efforts in that direction," the minister emphasised.

To recap, the soldiers of the N military unit of the Azerbaijani Defence - Agshin Gabil oglu Babirov (born in 2004) and Huseyn Ahliman oglu Akhundov (born in 2003) got lost in bad weather in the direction of the Shahbuz region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and accidentally ended up on the territory of Armenia, where they were detained. Video footage of the torture of our soldiers by Armenians has been circulated on social networks.

The court of general jurisdiction in Yerevan decided to arrest two Azerbaijani soldiers.

The Armenian Prosecutor's Office initiated a criminal case against the Azerbaijani servicemen under several articles.

In particular, according to the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia, a criminal case has been initiated against Agshin Babirov and Huseyn Akhundov under a number of articles of the country's criminal code. They are accused of allegedly illegal crossing of the state border by prior agreement by a group of persons, smuggling and illegal circulation of weapons and ammunition.

Later, another fabricated criminal case was initiated against Hussein Akhundov, who was in captivity in Armenia.

According to the Armenian media, he is accused of "murdering a security guard of the Zangezur copper-molybdenum plant."

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the so-called "trial" organised in Armenia over the Azerbaijani Army servicemen.