AZERBAIJANI DEFENSE MINISTRY: "THE ARMENIAN SOLDIERS SAID THE SITUATION IN THE ARMENIAN ARMY IS INTOLERABLE"
Today.Az
Marc h 2 2009
Azerbaijan
Armenian soldiers who knowingly crossed the Azerbaijani border said
while being questioned that soldiers are tortured in the Armenian army,
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu told Trend News.
Armenian soldiers crossed the border into Azerbaijan in Evciduzu in
Agdam at noon on Feb. 28. They asked Khojali IDP Zumrud Aliyeva to
give them food in Russian.
Aliyeva heard them speaking Armenian and informed a nearby military
unit.
The Armenian soldiers were later detained – Grant Markosyan, Artur
Varteryan and Alik Tevosyan.
The Armenian soldiers said the situation in the Armenian army
is intolerable. The soldiers are not provided with clothing. The
army lacks heating, and soldiers catch diseases due to the cold,
Sabiroglu said.
"Soldiers said they are not provided with food. There have
pneumonia and other serious diseases. The army also has a shortage
of medicine. The infectious diseases left many dead. The officers
even misappropriate the money sent by parents to buy medicine,"
Sabiroglu said.
Sabiroglu said the intolerable situation in the Armenian army forces
soldiers to either desert the army or become volunteer hostages.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7
districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed
a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia,
France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.
From: Baghdasarian