Politics

Baku urges Minsk Group Co-Chairs to mediate the release of Azeri commandos

“Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to raise the issue before Armenia for the soonest release of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev taken hostages by the Armenians,” said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, APA reports.

The minister said that the President touched upon the issue at the meeting with the co-chairs and demanded them to take serious steps in this direction.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross is currently dealing with this issue. We are in touch with them and hope for a positive result in the coming days,” he said.

Azeri saboteurs Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilham Askerov entered Karvachar in the summer. The third commando, Hasan Hasanov, was killed, and his body was handed over to Baku earlier this month.

The actions of the subversive group left an underage resident of Karvachar region and a soldier killed and a woman wounded.

Azerbaijan continues to insist that members of the subversive group had “arrived” in Nagorno Karabakh to visit the graves of their relatives.

The Foreign Minister said “Azerbaijan is anticipating a serious progress from the presidents’ trilateral meeting to take place in Paris in late October.”

The minister said Azerbaijan is willing to start developing a peace treaty on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict without delay, adding that the co-chairs put forth some structural proposals covering a number of issues.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick wasn’t able to visit Azerbaijan, the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan said.

“Ambassador Warlick had planned to travel to the region this week as part of a Minsk Group Co-Chair official visit, but due to a personal matter he was not able to make the trip. The U.S. side was nonetheless represented in meetings with the government of Azerbaijan. He has every expectation that the visit of his colleagues will be productive, and he is looking forward to the upcoming meeting of the Presidents in Paris”, the Embassy said.

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