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YEREVAN. – Armenian military serviceman Hakob Injighulyan, who was held captive in Azerbaijan for more than a year, is grateful to the international organizations and the foreign countries for assisting in his release from captivity. 

Injighulyan, who returned to Armenia from a third country in the early morning hours on Thursday, told the numerous media representatives, who had come to the airport to meet him, about his ordeals while in captivity.    

He stressed that the decision to return to his homeland was his own, and added that he plans to carry out the remaining nine months of his military service. 

He said that he is in “good” health condition.

Injighulyan spoke about the pressures he was subjected while in Azerbaijani captivity.

“They were saying: ‘If you don’t do as we say, you’ll share the fate of the [Armenian] shepherd [i.e., Manvel Saribekyan, who died in prison in Azerbaijan],’” he noted. 

He added that the “interview,” which he had given shortly after being captured, was given under threat, and that the Azerbaijanis also attempted to get information from him.   

“Before the visit by the delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross, they were telling me what to say to them. They were reading letters from my family, [and] dictating letters which I was writing.

“They threatened, said, ‘If you try to escape from captivity, or wish to return to Armenia, you will be shot.’ That’s why I went to a third country, and then returned to Armenia,” Injighulyan informed. 

In his words, he was held captive in a military facility, where he also had seen other Armenians. 

On the night of August 8, 2013, Armenian soldier Hakob Injighulyan (born in 1991) had gotten lost and found himself in the territory under the control of Azerbaijan. He was taken to the Azerbaijani capital city Baku the next day. The ICRC was able to first meet with the Armenian prisoner of war on August 20. In addition, Injighulyan was made to wear Azerbaijani military uniform and give several “interviews.”

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