Azernews.Az

By Trend

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry is checking the number of the country's women and children who are in camps in Iraq, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters in Baku.

Not only the Foreign Ministry but also relevant services, including the Interior Ministry, are working on this, according to him.

“It is not that simple, there are many questions that should be reflected – how these people got there, what they were engaged in, what is their fate. All this requires working with the Iraqi government. I assure you that our Embassy in Baghdad, our Consular Directorate and other services keep an eye on the matter. Currently about 100 people are on the list, but this is not specified. I think we will have a more updated data within a month,” Mammadyarov said.

Thousands of citizens of foreign states joined the “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, and a large number of them have been detained.

More than 300 of the detained foreign families in Iraq came from Turkey, many others came from former Soviet states, such as Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Russia, Reuters earlier reported citing preliminary data from the Iraqi army.

Previously, Iraq’s Charge D'affaires to Azerbaijan Fadhil Awad Jebur AL-Shuwaili told reporters in Baku that the Iraqi government is holding talks with Azerbaijan on the fate of the Azerbaijani children being kept in Iraq.

The diplomat reminded that one of the Azerbaijani children was brought home.

Two Azerbaijani children, two-year-old Khadija and four-year-old Abdulla, were found in the Syrian territories retaken from IS. They were brought to Iraq by the security forces after these territories were freed.

In September, head of the Azerbaijani State Security Service, Lieutenant-General Madat Guliyev said that about 900 Azerbaijanis have joined IS over the past five years.

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