Armenia bears full responsibility for violation of the agreement reached through the mediation of the relevant international organizations on mutual repatriation of the bodies of the killed servicemen, Azerbaijan`s State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons told AzVision.az on Monday.

The Commission said that the chronology of the incidents too prove the aforesaid.

At 9:15 (UTC+04:00) on 16 April 2016, Armenian website news.am reported that the body of an Azerbaijani serviceman has been founded (https://azvision.az/redirect.php?url=http://news.am/rus/news/322696.html). After getting the information, we contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and an issue was raised for clarification.

Sometime from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM same day, the ICRC informed the Commission that it has investigated the case and confirmed that the body of an Azerbaijani serviceman is on the Armenian side.

Then, in accordance with the negotiations, an agreement was reached as to repatriating the body of an Armenian soldier founded in an area controlled by Azerbaijani soldiers and the body of an Azerbaijani serviceman found by the Armenians on the contact line of troops around 10:30 AM April 17, 2016.

At 11:30 PM on 16 April 2016, the Armenians informed the relevant international organizations that they don’t have the body of an Azerbaijani serviceman, saying that they allegedly were mistaken.

Given that the identification of the bodies of Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers takes a few seconds, it is impossible to understand why they demanded 12 hours to this work.

This case not only shows that the Armenian side is planning another dirty provocation, but also a clear example of violation of international humanitarian law.

The State Commission has raised an issue before the relevant international organizations not to create conditions for a dirty provocation of the Armenian side, urging them to take a principled position to help clarify the fate of missing people.

The Commission noted that it is closely following the issue.

At the moment, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry is continuing the search through the mediation of the relevant international organizations. The public will be informed of the results of the search.

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 OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, 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.

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