Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The body of an Azerbaijani soldier, Bahruz Jalilbayli, who left the place of service at his own will after committing a military crime, was taken by the Armenian side.

Eldar Samadov, deputy head of the work group of Azerbaijan’s State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, made the remarks to reporters in Baku on November 28.

Currently, negotiations are underway with relevant structures in order to return his body to the Azerbaijani side, said Samadov, adding that the public will be informed about this in the coming days.

Jalilbayli was called up for active military service on January 5, 2017. Recently, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a message that his body was found on November 23 on the contact line at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in the direction of the Ordubad region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, near the positions of the Armenian armed forces.

Following the incident, Azerbaijan’s State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons appealed to international organizations to return the body of the Azerbaijani serviceman.

Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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