Armenian colonel: Baku did not kidnap Garabagh football players

Armenian military expert, reserve colonel Hayk Nahapetyan has called for a stop to disinformation about the alleged kidnapping of Garabagh footballers.

"According to my information, four people are there now. They were not kidnapped, let's call things by their names. Don't spread disinformation. Later they will write that it was in the presence of Russian peacekeepers, as it is presented now, isn't it?” he said in an interview with Hraparak, Caliber.Az reports.

Nahapetyan underlined that Azerbaijanis detained three young people, and there is a video - they are students, footballers from Martuni (Khojavand) district, who walked on the Azerbaijani flag spread on the ground before entering the stadium.

“Such desecration of the state symbol is a criminal offence in any country. Any person coming from Garabagh to Armenia goes through the lists of the ‘National Security Service’. Question: Wasn't there a list of persons wanted by Azerbaijan? Moreover, I would like to inform you that there are 11 footballers who are wanted. Who participated in that football match in 2021? 11 young men. Now, I and everyone have a question, how come, if they are wanted, if there are open sources, didn't the "Garabagh authorities" know about it, that they allowed young people to go to Khakari Bridge?

One of them, according to my sources, had a conflict with Azerbaijanis, broke some cameras, this is my preliminary data, but most likely it is true. Now the question arises why the 'National Security Service' allowed those wanted by Azerbaijan to go through the Khakari Bridge?", Nahapetyan said.