STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 29, ARMENPRESS. President of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Arayik Harutyunyan has “guaranteed” that the three men kidnapped by Azerbaijani authorities on Monday will “soon” be returned.

“I have some assuring [news],” Harutyunyan said after a meeting with public figures and politicians in parliament. “First of all, I’ll try to establish contact in order to speak with our boys, and get an exact date when they will return. This won’t take long. And they will personally know the name of the official who will bring our boys back to Stepanakert. I guarantee it,” Harutyunyan said.

He called on the families of the kidnapped men to visit his office Tuesday morning.

On August 28, Azerbaijani border guards in the illegally installed checkpoint in Lachin Corridor kidnapped residents of Nagorno-Karabakh Alen Sargsyan, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan. All three are students who were traveling to Armenia to continue their studies. The transport was agreed upon in advance and was being carried out with Russian peacekeeping escort.

The Foreign Ministry of Armenia called out the Azerbaijani authorities for derailing peace efforts and warned that Baku seeks to perpetrate collective punishment against the entire population in Nagorno-Karabakh.