YEREVAN. – An internal investigation is underway, also, a criminal case has been initiated or will be initiated in the near future; as a result of the internal investigation we will find out how it happened. Armenia’s defense minister Davit Tonoyan stated this in a talk with journalists in the National Assembly Friday, referring to Armenian soldier Gurgen Alaverdyan ending up in Azerbaijan.

"Because our initial assessment is that our soldier got lost and ended up at the side of the adversary. Whether our serviceman was abducted, whether there were other conditions, we still have to find that out. Depending on that, we will work within various international organizations, in various formats.

Now our demand is that the international Red Cross representation in Azerbaijan visits our servicemen, which, according to my information, has not been done at the moment," the minister said.

And to the remark that Azerbaijan has violated international humanitarian norms, Davit Tonoyan responded as follows: "There are standard procedures by which any halls of power, including the Azerbaijani authorities, are informed, warned that they have committed a violation. After that there are reactions in various formats. We are confident that within the framework of both the OSCE and the office of the international Red Cross and the relevant UN agencies are sparing no effort for the return of our servicemen. But there are also some conditions for return—exchange, etc. We cannot talk about it at this time. The main thing at this phase is that they be safe and healthy."