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ICRC in talks with sides to get access to Elnur Huseynzade

07 February 2017 12:42 (UTC +04:00)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has begun negotiating with the sides in order to obtain access to Azerbaijani citizen Elnur Huseynzade, who, a couple of days ago, was detained by Armenians in the direction of the Talish village under unknown circumstances.

“The ICRC conducts confidential and bilateral dialogue with the sides concerned to get access to the detained person,” Ilaha Huseynova, head of the Communication Department of the ICRC Azerbaijan Delegation, told APA.

“Visits to persons detained in relation to conflict falls under ICRC mandate, according to the norms of international humanitarian law,” Huseynova noted.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.