Azerbaijani Soldier Crossed Border Due to Humiliation Returning Him Back to Azerbaijan Impossible

Today in Armenia’s National Assembly, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was asked about the Azerbaijani serviceman who was found and arrested in Armenia’s town of Sisian in Syunik on April 10.

Pashinyan said that according to investigation, it’s obvious to him that the Azerbaijani soldier intentionally crossed over to Armenia due to pressure and humiliation from his fellow Azerbaijanis — and thus, Armenia cannot force him to return back to his home of Azerbaijan.

"I can say the following that as a result of the investigative actions carried out, it is obvious that the soldier of the Azerbaijani army simply fled from their positions with his comrade due to pressure and humiliation from other comrades, and it is not at all a fact that he wants to return to Azerbaijan, because you know, that with our internationally accepted obligations, if a person in such a situation does not want to return, we cannot simply return him by force,” Pashinyan said.

Then the Prime Minister proceeded to address about the whereabouts of the second Azerbaijani soldier who had also reportedly crossed over into Armenia.

“The following is that according to the information we have, the second soldier, who is still being sought, said not long after he crossed the border in the very border village that he regretted and wanted to return, and in this context there is a lot of discussion as to how the soldiers crossed the border unhindered, came, crossed, reached some places. Of course, that circumstance should be investigated separately and conclusions should be drawn, but I want to remind, if I'm not mistaken, an incident that happened in mid-March, when the weapons inspector of the RA Armed Forces got lost, and his whereabouts were unknown for a whole day. We knew that he got confused and crossed the border, he came back after about 24 hours, and when we look at the place where he crossed, got lost, as a result of his return, it turned out that he traveled a lot of kilometers and between about 20 positions in Azerbaijan came, returned to Armenia," said Pashinyan.