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BAKU: Azeri teenage soldier held prisoner by Armenia: Def Ministry

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  • BAKU: Azeri teenage soldier held prisoner by Armenia: Def Ministry

    Agence France Presse
    July 2, 2004

    Azeri teenage soldier held prisoner by Armenia:
    defence ministry

    BAKU (AFP) Jul 01, 2004

    Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry said Thursday that one of its soldiers
    was being held prisoner by Armenian forces, apparently after he
    wandered across the front line which separates the two neighbours. A
    statement from the ministry said the 19-year-old private went missing
    while serving in Azerbaijan's Agdam region, close to disputed
    territory which has been occupied by Armenian forces since a war in
    the early 1990s.

    The statement said the serviceman may have been taken by Armenian
    troops after he got lost on the heavily-militarised front line, which
    is dotted with landmines.

    The Red Cross was helping negotiate the soldier's release, the
    statement added. There was no immediate confirmation of the report
    available from the Armenian side.

    Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics, fought a
    five-year war for control of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
    which cost the lives of an estimated 35,000 people.

    A ceasefire was signed in 1994, leaving Armenian forces in de facto
    control of Karabakh and surrounding Azeri regions.

    Skirmishes along the ceasefire line are a frequent occurrence. Dozens
    of soldiers are killed each year in landmine accidents or by snipers
    on the opposing side.
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