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International group denies Azeri children held in Armenian captivity

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  • International group denies Azeri children held in Armenian captivity

    International group denies Azeri children held in Armenian captivity

    Noyan Tapan news agency
    3 Jun 04

    Yerevan, 3 June: The international working group to release POWs and
    hostages and to trace missing persons in the zone of the Karabakh
    conflict states with full confidence that information about camps for
    Azerbaijani kamikaze children, which is allegedly located in Lacin
    [Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani district], is wide of the mark.

    The Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo published on 20 May an article by
    journalist Lala Nuri headlined "Lacin-Buchenwald for Azerbaijani
    children". The article appeared after the co-chairman of the
    international working group for POWs, hostages and missing persons
    in the zone of the Karabakh conflict, Paata Zakareishvili, described
    as a myth a report by two defectors from Armenia, Roman Teryan and
    Artur Apresyan, who had said that Azerbaijani children were being
    trained as kamikazes in Armenian captivity. The article reported that a
    certain businessman Asaf Alimardanov called the editorial office of the
    newspaper and said that an American engineer (?Terry Kagel), who used
    to work with him, met Azerbaijani children held by Armenians during
    his trip to occupied Lacin in the 1990s. At the request of Zerkalo
    newspaper, Alimardanov contacted Kagel again and received, according
    to the journalist, more detailed information which confirms that
    Azerbaijani children are being held in a special camp in Lacin. The
    newspaper reported that the editorial office had Mr Kagel's office
    telephone number. Mrs Nuri suggested that the international working
    group find and return the Azerbaijani children to the motherland.

    Since one of the forms of the work of the international working group
    is to check such information, the group, as its press release says,
    immediately started to implement the task set by the newspaper. Having
    obtained Terry Kagel's telephone number from the editorial office, the
    members of the group called him and told him about the Zerkalo article
    which had mentioned his name. Mr Kagel was extremely surprised and
    asked them to send him a translation of the article. The co-chairman
    of the international working group, Bernhard Clasen, accepted his
    request. In his reply, Kagel flatly denied the facts cited in the
    article and suggested calling two people Pastor David Goehring and
    volunteer Stan Brown who had repeatedly visited Lacin on a humanitarian
    mission under an AGAPE project. Bernhard Clasen held two conversations
    with the two employees of AGAPE and received clearer information
    saying that they had rendered assistance to a children's institution
    for Armenian children in Lacin.

    The international working group decided not to publish this
    information, as it had not seen this institution for itself and
    had not spoken to AGAPE employees. On 2 June, the co-chairmen of the
    international working group, Bernhard Clasen and Svetlana Gannushkina,
    visited Lacin and went to a boarding school. It has 28 children from
    difficult and incomplete families, and 18 of the children have only
    one parent. The boarding school has had only four orphans so far. The
    age of the children is between five and 18. These are mainly children
    from refugee families. They are looked after very well - the girls
    are taught needlework and the boys are dealing with housekeeping. The
    AGAPE project has been working in this region since 1994, helping to
    supply medical equipment to a hospital and implementing educational
    programmes. Its employees were extremely surprised by the supposition
    that Azerbaijani children could be held hostage in the boarding school.

    The press release has been signed by Svetlana Gannushkina, Bernhard
    Clasen and Paata Zakareishvili.
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