Azeri-captured Armenian soldier transferred to UN refugee camp

Azeri-captured Armenian soldier transferred to UN refugee camp

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian soldier Hakob Injighulyan was released from Azerbaijani captivity and transferred to a UN refugee camp.

Injighulyan’s brother, Harutyun said that the family maintains contact with him through Skype, but only heard his voice for absence of a camera.

He added that the family can finally set their minds at ease now that Hakob is no longer in Azerbaijan.

According to Harutyun, the ex-captive wants to return to Armenia; however, no information on a deal agreed with the country Injighulyan was transferred to is available.

"Hakob was reluctant to leave for the third country, but the only choice he was given was between leaving for the third country or dying," Pastinfo.am quoted him as saying.

Hakob Injighulyan, an Armenian citizen and an army conscript, failed to find his bearings on the ground and crossed into the Azeri-controlled territory on the night of August 8, 2013.

Azeri media outlets have since been spreading information suggesting the captive is unwilling to return to Armenia.

In mid-October, media was circulating reports suggesting the captive was to be moved to a third country from Azerbaijan. The information, however, hadn’t been confirmed at the Yerevan Office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Injighulyan never mentioned his unwillingness to return to Armenia in a meeting with ICRC representatives, with Azerbaijani Prisoners of War Commission Secretary noting he sees no problem with the captive's return. Nor did he express intention to leave for a third country, reports said.

Armenia has repeatedly slammed the “interviews” with Injighulyan as forced by Baku and urged the ICRC to take every effort to help the captive’s return, with no persecution to be initiated against him in the absence of crime in the act.

In June, Injighulyan wrote letters to his family members

“In a new letter, like in his previous ones, he wrote that he’s well and has no problems,” Injighulyan’s brother, Harut, told Panorama.am.

However, several lines were crossed out in Injighulyan’s letters to his mother and brother. In Harut Injighulyan’s words, representatives of the ICRC Baku Office crossed out those lines, explaining that Hakob wrote things that his parents should not know.

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