Russian Foreign Ministry urges probe into Armenian's death in Azeri captivity
MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax) - Russia's Foreign Ministry has deplored the death of an Armenian villager after being taken prisoner by Azeri soldiers and called for an investigation.
"We are very sorry that the unsettled Nagorno-Karabakh conflict involves fatalities, and not only during armed clashes. We offer our deep condolences to the families of Karen Petrosian and other Armenians and Azeris who have died. We believe that incidents of this kind need careful investigation," spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Saturday in answering a question from the media.
Karen Petrosian, a 25-year-old villager, was taken prisoner in an Azeri military operation on August 7. The next day, the Azeri Defense Minister said he had died of suspected heart failure.
Armenia denied that Petrosian had been a combatant. The health center of his home village of Chinari in Armenia's Tavush region told reporters he had had nothing wrong with his health. Chinari head of administration Samvel Sagoyan told reporters that, before being caught by Azeri soldiers, Petrosian had gone to a local forest to gather firewood and apparently lost his way.
"We urge the parties [to the conflict] to activate the provision in the Joint Statement of the Presidents of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation of October 27, 2010, on the return of the dead bodies of victims with support from the co-chairpersons of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the International Committee of the Red Cross," Lukashevich said.
