YEREVAN. – Interpersonal relations were the reason for the Azerbaijani soldier to defect his army, Armenia’s Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan stated Saturday, to news reporters, during his visit to capital Yerevan’s Yerablur Pantheon.  

“We know our advantages, and we also know the situation in the adversary’s army,” Ohanyan said, and stressed: “We are not concerned by all that. What’s important is that the Armenian soldiers noticed him, while crossing the border, and escorted him.”

To note, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Army military servicemen detained, on Monday at the Karabakh-Azerbaijani line of contact, a citizen of Azerbaijan who was entering the Karabakh side of the line of contact. NKR State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons had issued a statement in this regard: “The detained was wearing the uniform of a military serviceman of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. He had a military service record with him on the name of Junior Sergeant Akhundzade Mamedbagru Taliboghlu, born in 1990. NKR’s respective agencies are ascertaining the circumstances of the incident. NKR authorities have informed of this incident to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the OSCE offices accredited in [NKR capital] Stepanakert,” the statement read.          

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, President Serzh Sargsyan paid a visit to capital Yerevan’s Yerablur Pantheon for fallen Karabakh war heroes, in the morning of Saturday, January 28, 2012—the Armenian Armed Forces Day 20th anniversary—and laid a wreath to the memorial. NKR President Bako Sahakyan, Armenian National Assembly Speaker Samvel Nikoyan, PM, Tigran Sargsyan, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, and senior army officers were also on hand at the Pantheon to pay their respects to the fallen heroes.