Armenia, Artsakh call Baku’s claims of captured soldier ‘cheap theater’

By Asbarez | Wednesday, 21 June 2017

This man claims to be Zaven Karapetyan, whom Azerbaijani say is a

This man claims to be Zaven Karapetyan, whom Azerbaijani say is a “saboteur.” Armenia says he does not exist

YEREVAN, STEPANAKERT—The defense ministries of Armenia and Artsakh were quick to dismiss a video released Wednesday by the Azerbaijani defense ministry depicting a man that was identified as a solder of the Artsakh armed forces and a member of an “Armenian subversive group.”

The video depicts an Azerbaijani military interrogation during which the alleged “saboteur” identifies himself as Zaven Hovhannes Karapetyan and is seen saying, in poor Armenian, that he is from the village of Dovegh and was recruited for paid combat duty. He alleges that his mission was to allegedly attack an Azerbaijani outpost and kill the soldiers stationed there. He explains that two of his comrades were wounded and others in his units carried them back to the Artaskh outpost. He claims that he was unable to flee and was captured by Azerbaijani soldier.

The spokesperson for Armenia’s Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannesyan called the video ‘cheap theater,’ adding that such a person did not exist in the ranks of the armed forces.

“No attempt of subversive infiltration was ever made. Hence there cannot be any captive ‘saboteur.’ Furthermore, we haven’t and have never had a serviceman with the mentioned name and last name,” Hovhannesyan told Panorama.am on Wednesday.

The head of the Dovegh village Samvel Gorginyan told Public Radio of Armenia that no one with the name lives in the village.

The Artsakh Defense Ministry refuted the reports of saying in a statement that Artsakh’s Defense Army ‘has not taken this kind of actions.’

“By disseminating such statements, the Azerbaijani armed forces create an illusion of yet another ‘victory’ in the virtual space,” the Ministry said, calling it “wishful thinking” on the part of Azerbaijan.


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