Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) once again visited Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, Azerbaijani hostages detained by Armenia in the course of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Axar.az reports referring to ICRC Azerbaijan Office.

During an operation in July 2014 in Shaplar village of Azerbaijani Kalbajar district occupied by Armenia, the Armenian special forces killed an Azerbaijani Hasan Hasanov, and took hostage two other Azerbaijanis, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov. A "criminal case" was initiated against them. Afterwards, a "court" sentenced Asgarov to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years in prison.

Besides, a citizen of Azerbaijan, a resident of the Yukhary Salakhly village of Gazakh district Elvin Ibrahimov, born in 1986, left his home March 15 and went to work. On his way he got lost on the border between Azerbaijan’s Gazakh district and Armenia’s Noyemberyan district and crossed the border.

Ibrahimov and Armenian citizen Zaven Karapetyan (1974), detained on the territory of the Gazakh district June 20, 2017, were handed over to the relevant parties June 28, 2019.

The hostage exchange was organized by the Azerbaijan State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons and the State Border Service through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.