Azeri-captured soldier returns to Armenia, wants to continue service

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hakob Injighulyan, the Armenian serviceman, captured by Azerbaijan in August 2013, returned to Armenia, Tert.am said.

His family, friends and fellow villagers gathered at the Zvartnots International Airport to meet him in the morning of October 2. In the airport, Injighulyan thanked the international organizations who assisted his return to Armenia.

As was earlier reported, Injughulyan was transferred to a UN refugee camp, with the news given to his family on August 28. "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," the captive’s brother, Harutyun, said at the time.

In a conversation with journalists, the serviceman said that he had gone astray on the day of captivity, negligently crossing the Azerbaijani border from Nagorno Karabakh. He promised to continue his service in the military, adding that he still has 9 months of army service left.

Injighulyan further recounted hardships experienced in Azeri captivity.

“Yes, I was beaten. They threatened to shoot me to death. The interviews were given under pressure; they would call and tell me what to say. And before the Red Cross visits too, they would call me to give instructions; they would read my letters …” he said, confirming that his departure for the third country before arrival to Armenia was prompted by Azeri threats of death.

Injighulyan said he was held in a five-storey penitentiary for servicemen, where he had also met Armenians. He said he was offered medical help only once after he got harshly beaten.

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.