ARMENIAN SOLDIERS IN AZERBAIJAN DO NOT WANT TO RETURN ARMENIA: MINISTRY

Trend
March 5 2009
Azerbaijan

Armenian soldiers who voluntarily crossed the border into Azerbaijan
said they do not want to return to Armenia, Azerbaijani Defense
Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu told Trend News.

The soldiers crossed the border into Azerbaijan in Evciduzu in Agdam
at noon on Feb. 28. They asked Khojali IDP Zumrud Aliyeva to give
them food in Russian.

Aliyeva heard them speaking Armenian and informed a nearby military
unit.

The soldiers were later detained – Grant Markosyan, Artur Varteryan
and Alik Tevosyan.

Sabiroglu said the soldiers fear that they will be tortured upon
returning to Armenia.

"They are afraid that they will once again have to face the unbearable
conditions in the Armenian army," he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7
districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed
a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia,
France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.