MFA offical: 'Most captives and hostages listed in ICRC new report are Azerbaijanis'

Baku. 24 February. REPORT.AZ/ 'Agreement has been reached during the meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Paris, France on creation of information mechanism regarding captives and hostages. As a result, updated list of persons, who have been captured and taken hostages from both sides has been revealed. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) considers 4500 persons to be missing and captives. 80% of them are servicemen.'

Report informs, ICRC Representative in Azerbaijan Deniz Duran stated.

According to her, the representative office jointly works with relevant authorities and tries to return captives and missing persons: 'Measures to return and change captives should be continued. In 2014, within the framework of cooperation with Working Group of the State Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People, biological samples were taken from 2 thousand families. Every mother wants to get information about her child, which is in captivity. Our organization is providing humanitarian assistance. It has no relation with national origin.'

Chief of Humanitarian and Social Affairs Department of Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Seymur Mardaliyev said fate of captives and hostages are very important for the country: 'In the framework of cooperation with our international partners, we always raise issues related to the persons being in captivity and taken hostages. We welcome efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross to create information mechanism on captives and hostages. Most persons in the new list are Azerbaijanis.'