Army bids farewell to brave soldier in Baku

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Baku hosted a farewell ceremony for Azerbaijani soldier Chingiz Gurbanov, who was killed while preventing Armenian provocation in late December 2016.

Senior representatives of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, relatives of the martyr and members of the public took part in the ceremony held at the Ministry's Training and Education Center on February 6.

Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, addressing the ceremony, offered condolences to the family of soldier.

The soldier's father Salman Gurbanov expressed gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov and relevant bodies for the return of his son’s body from Armenian side.

Chingiz Gurbanov was buried in the Alley of Martyrs in Gusar.

On December 29, 2016, a reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces attempted to violate the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border. The Armenian group found itself in the ambush of the Azerbaijani army while violating the borders and suffered heavy losses. During the fighting, Azerbaijani serviceman Chingiz Gurbanov went missing. Later, it was clarified that he was killed by the Armenian Armed Forces and his body remained on the territory controlled by the Armenian Armed Forces.

After the incident, the Azerbaijani side officially appealed to the Azerbaijani representation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), OSCE Minsk Group, as well as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk in order to return the body. Despite this, the Armenian side for over a month refused to return the body.

Eventually, Gurbanov’s body was transferred to Azerbaijan on February 5 as a result of the regular measures undertaken by international organizations, and relevant state agencies in accordance with the instructions of the President.