Azerbaijan parliament appeals to int’l organizations for return of soldier’s body

The statement says that Armenians, along with increasing their provocation attempts, continue to violate the international law, the Geneva Convention, and put forward groundless demands.

"For more than 25 years, Armenia has held 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory under occupation and continues to grossly violate the international law,” says the statement.

"The failure to return the body of the Azerbaijani armed forces soldier, Chingiz Gurbanov, who was killed while preventing provocative and subversive acts of a reconnaissance group of the Armenian armed forces, which tried to violate the state border on Dec. 29, 2016, is a striking example of that,” says the statement.

"We believe the international community, which has resolutely and clearly expressed its opinion on the inhuman acts of Armenia, which ignores norms of international law, including the requirements of the Geneva Convention and other international documents, should find the problem’s solution,” says the statement.

"The Azerbaijani Parliament’s Committee for Human Rights urges the relevant international organizations to take necessary and urgent measures to return the body of the Azerbaijani soldier and increase pressure on the Armenian leadership,” according to the statement.

The statement was sent to all the relevant international organizations, including the OSCE, Council of Europe and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

On Dec. 29, 2016, a reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces tried to violate the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border. The Armenian group found itself in the ambush of the Azerbaijani army while violating the borders and suffered heavy losses.

Chingiz Gurbanov, a serviceman of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, went missing during the fight. It was later found out that Armenia kept the soldier’s body.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.