Ministry: Citizen who crossed border was previously contract serviceman

Arsen Khojayan, who has today crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, was previously a contract serviceman in an Armenian military unit and was later demobilized, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisian told Aysor.am.

APA news agency (Azerbaijan) reported earlier, citing the secretary of the State Commission on POWs, Detainees and Missing in Action Shahin Sailov that an Armenian citizen aged 20-22 was detained when crossing the Line of Contact in Tovuz region of Azerbaijan. The man’s identity was not established yet and he will be transported to Baku to be questioned tomorrow, APA said.

The commission secretary Shahin Sailov later said that the detainee knows only Armenian. He was dressed in civilian clothes. Then the Azerbaijani media also published the young man’s photo and information about him: Arsen Khojayan, 23.

Meanwhile, the administrator of Verin Karmiraghbyur village in Armenia Kamo Chobanian told Aysor.am that the young man who crossed the border is a distant relative of 77-year-old Armenian citizens Mamikon Khojoyan who was freed a few days ago after being held captive in Azerbaijan in recent months. Arsen Khojoyan, 23 (editor of Aysor.am: the spelling of his last name was not officially verified ) is engaged in livestock farming. In all likelihood he lost his way in a dense fog today.