Body Of Missing Armenian Teen Found Near Nagorno-Karabakh

By RFE/RL's Armenian Service

July 16, 2014

Authorities in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh say the body of a missing Armenian teenager has been found.

According to authorities in the unrecognized republic, the body of Smbat Tsakanian was found on July 15. No more details were given.

Tsakanian, a resident of the village of Nor Erkej in Armenia-controlled Kelbajar district, sandwiched between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, went missing on July 4 as Karabakh troops were reportedly "neutralizing" an Azerbaijani saboteur group.

Tsakanian's relatives say they believe he was kidnapped and killed by Azerbaijani commandos.

Baku and Yerevan remain locked in hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh, which along with several adjacent districts was seized from Azerbaijan by Armenian-backed separatists during a devastating war in the early 1990s.