Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has confirmed that Yashar Ali Oglu Kasimov, an Azerbaijani citizen, was found in Tavush Province and that ‘appropriate measures are being taken to return’ him to Azerbaijan.
Kasimov, born in 1968 and a resident of the village of Chatakh in Azerbaijan’s Tovuz District, was found in Armenian territory on Monday afternoon, according to the NSS.
‘As a result of the verification measures carried out, it was established that the Azerbaijani citizen had entered the territory of the Republic of Armenia after getting lost’, the NSS said.
On Thursday afternoon, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed in his weekly press briefing that Armenia will return the person to Azerbaijan.
He stated that the Armenian security found him when he crossed over.
‘They saw him walking toward them, detained him, and handed him over to the NSS’, Pashinyan said.
Although Kasimov was detained on Monday, Armenian authorities did not publicly disclose the incident until Wednesday, after information surfaced in the media.
5TV, an opposition-affiliated outlet, first reported that ‘an Azerbaijani shepherd has crossed into Armenia’. Citing its sources, the outlet said Kasimov had been found and taken to the military police in the town of Berd, Tavush Province.
The NSS initially told 5TV it had no information about the incident and would look into it, before asking the outlet to submit a written inquiry.
An unnamed head of a community in the Tavush Province told 5TV that the shepherd had crossed through ‘the forests of our area’, while another community head suggested the weather had been foggy and rainy, but added that rumours were circulating that the ‘shepherd had crossed the border voluntarily to seek political asylum’.
On the same day, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan addressed the incident in parliament but did not confirm whether Kasimov had sought political asylum.
‘Such things happen: a shepherd can get lost on their side, and one can get lost on our side. And such incidents happen both before and after the establishment of peace’, Mirzoyan said, adding that people are returned in such situations.
On Wednesday, Azerbaijan’s State Border Service responded to the initial reports published in Armenian media, claiming that no incident involving a shepherd crossing from its area of responsibility into Armenia had occurred.
Baku has not commented on Armenia’s confirmation that they have detained a man.
The incident marks the second reported case of an Azerbaijani crossing into Armenia since October.
OC MediaAni Ghulinyan
The first involved Azerbaijani soldier Nasimi Musayev, who was detained after abandoning his post and entering a house in Shaki, a village in southern Syunik Province, where he shot Armenian resident Ani Avetisyan on 1 October.
Avetisyan sustained multiple injuries and underwent surgery. Before the shooting, her children had returned from school to find the lock to their home broken and Musayev inside. The soldier reportedly tried to take the children hostage, with the children also sustaining injuries.
Avetisyan was reportedly injured after returning home to try to protect her children from Musayev’s gunfire and eventually stabbed him in the chest after he ran out of ammunition. Musayev was subsequently arrested and remains in detention in Armenia.
The shooting was the first incident of its kind in over a year as Armenia and Azerbaijan maintain that peace has been established after decades of conflict. It raised questions about how Musayev had crossed the border and whether local residents had been warned enough about the missing Azerbaijani soldier.
Pashinyan told Infocom on 6 October that before the discovery of the soldier there was no evidence or any confidence that he had crossed into the territory of Armenia, and without facts, a public statement would have been ‘false information’.