13:54,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. The ICRC Yerevan office is awaiting an official confirmation regarding an Armenian serviceman’s purported unintentional border crossing into Azerbaijani territory due to bad weather-related disorientation and subsequent capture.
“In the event of having confirmation regarding officer Gurgen Alaverdyan’s incident, appropriate actions will be taken under relevant procedures,” ICRC Armenia Communications chief Zara Amatuni told ARMENPRESS.
The ICRC’s standard procedures require official confirmation from Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities of the news on the serviceman being lost or having appeared on the other side of the border in order to launch proceedings.
Unconfirmed Azerbaijani media reports earlier claimed that the Azerbaijani military have seized the Armenian officer on their side of the border.
In turn, the Armenian Defense Ministry has said that Officer Gurgen Alaverdyan was disoriented due to bad weather conditions and got lost while working at his outpost on August 22, 19:30. The Armenian military said they have launched search operations.
The Azerbaijani news media even tried to falsely present the Armenian serviceman to be a “saboteur”, but the Armenian side dismissed it as disinformation.
Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan