The feud between Azerbaijan and Armenia has pretty much died down in the international news, however, reports surfaced online stating that Armenian soldiers have been captured by Azerbaijan. The reports came about as a result of alleged photos that appeared online showing Armenian soldiers that had been captured by Azerbaijan. These photos have been making rounds on social media, the photos show Armenian soldiers laying down face front with hands cupped at their necks. The other photo shows Armenian soldiers squatting on the floor with their hands cupped at their necks.
Photos show Armenian soldiers captured by Azerbaijan
Many people have claimed that these photos are staged. A user tweeted, “A little suspicious that Azerbaijan never released the identities of these alleged Armenian soldiers.” Another replied to this by saying, “I have noticed only now the white flag and that they hide their faces. This really looks staged. I mean why would someone take and keep a white flag in his hands when they already surrendered.”
The validity of the photos has not been confirmed by any state yet. One user commented, “No confirmation from Armenian side either… Maybe was staged?” Such tactics have often been used by nations in the past as a tool of establishing their dominance in the mainstream narrative. By releasing such pictures, Azerbaijan is asserting itself as the winner in front of its citizens and the rest of the world as well.
Azerbaijani forces captured at least five Armenian soldiers in Karabakh region. pic.twitter.com/jnXBHkOoqy
— Ali Özkök (@Ozkok_A) October 3, 2020
Are the alleged photos real or fake?
Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the MOD representative was inquired about these pictures on Friday. He said, “I cannot either deny or confirm, Shushan (MOD spokesperson – Aysor.am) has already referred to the issue. Severe fights take place, change of frontline…we cannot deny anything, though concretely this photo is rather well-covered falsification.”
Clashes broke out a week ago between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, this is a breakaway region in Azerbaijan that happens to have an Armenian majority. The clashes set off alarms elaborating on the risks of a wider war that might ensue in Russia, Turkey, and Iran. The hostility between the two states had simmered for decades in a remote mountain region of the Caucasus.
Nagorno-Karabakh has officially been considered a part of the Azerbaijan territory since the Soviet era. In the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union began to collapse, Armenia’s regional parliament pushed for the region’s transfer to Armenia but the Soviet authorities turned down this demand.
Decades of clashes and skirmishes followed between Azerbaijan forces and Armenian separatists over the disputed territory. The violence came to a halt in the 1990s, leaving tens and thousands dead and displacing hundreds of thousands of people from both states. In 1994, Russia urged a ceasefire but by the time a ceasefire could be reached, the ethnic Armenians had taken control of the region.
