BAKU. Dec 30 (Interfax) - The body of Azerbaijani serviceman Cingiz Gurbanov, who was listed as missing following an incident on the border with Armenia on Thursday, is in possession of the Armenian side, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said.
"Even though the Armenian side denied at first that it was holding the corpse, shortly after appropriate measures were taken by the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, and given the presence of irrefutable evidence, the adversary had to circulate a photograph of our serviceman via social networking websites," the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The Defense Ministry has forwarded an official request to the Azerbaijani office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as well as to Personal Representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk to help repatriate the Azerbaijani soldier's body.
"Efforts continue to be made at the moment together with the relevant structures to arrange the transfer of the serviceman's body to the Azerbaijani side," the ministry said.
Yerevan on Thursday accused Baku of having attempted an incursion on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border.
The press service of the Armenian Defense Ministry said later that Armenia's Armed Forces had neutralized Azerbaijani troops' offensive at a sector of the state border south-east of the village of Chinari.
The Defense Ministry has irrefutable proof of a violation of the Armenian state border by the Azerbaijani side, it said.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, for its part, said that an Armenian Armed Forces reconnaissance group had been ambushed by Azerbaijani army units as the Armenian group attempted to cross into Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in an official statement that one Azerbaijani soldier was listed as missing following the armed clash.