In Baku, five persons are on hunger strike demanding release of Askerov and Guliev detained in Nagorno-Karabakh

Starting November 14, the office of the public Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) in Baku is the venue of a hunger strike aimed to draw international attention to the detention in Nagorno-Karabakh of Azerbaijani citizens Dilgama Askerov and Shakhbaz Guliev, and the trial of them. The hunger-strikers demand to release them, said Akif Nagi, the KLO's spokesman.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 10 the press-service of the Defence Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) announced the arrest of several Azerbaijani soldiers at the attempt "of a diversion and intelligence penetration from the Azerbaijani territory." A criminal case was initiated against the detainees for illegal border crossing.

According to Nagi, since November 14 the hunger-strikers have decreased blood tension, while public activists and doctors insist on termination of the action. This issue will be considered at a sitting of the Board of the KLO on November 20, said Nagi.

The KLO also offers to give a chance for the Armenian party to visit the place of the downed military helicopter, after Askerov and Guliev are released.

The lawyer Alaif Gasanov has stated that under the conventions, Askerov and Guliev, as civilians, fall under the category of hostages.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.