15:36 - 14.10.2020

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October 14, Fineko/abc.az. Hikmet Hajiyev, the Assistant to the President and Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, expressed his attitude to the involvement of mercenaries in the Armenian army.

ABC.AZ reports that according to Hajiyev, a number of European states have taken serious measures to prevent their citizens from joining illegal armed groups.

"For example, earlier this July a person named Tyler Vilus, who took part in the fighting as part of ISIL in France, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in an interview for newspaper Liberation a French citizen named Gilbert Minassian, who participated in the Khojaly genocide, stated that France mobilized citizens to participate in the fighting against Azerbaijan as mercenaries. Prior to the recent military operations, Armenia organized the import of armed mercenaries and terrorists to the occupied Azerbaijani territories. The fact of bringing in armed mercenaries from abroad was also confirmed during the discussion of changes to the Law on Defence of Armenia in connection with the involvement of volunteers. With this step, Armenia actually aims to attract armed mercenaries and terrorists from other countries to its army, posing them as volunteers."