The man was apprehended in Ashotavan, a village in Syunik province situated not far from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. Local residents said that he wore civilian clothes and carried no firearms.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani claims to be a soldier. “In his words, there was another serviceman with him, the search for whom is continuing,” it said in a short statement.
The Azerbaijani military reported, meanwhile, that two of its soldiers serving in Nakhichevan have done missing due to heavy fog. It did not identify them.
The Azerbaijanis were reportedly first spotted overnight in Bnunis, another village just a few kilometers south of the Syunik town of Sisian. Several local residents told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they knocked on the door of fellow villager Shoghik Matevosian’s house.
“They didn’t talk,” said one of them. “They left when she shut the door.”
Matevosian and members of her family refused to comment.
Bnunis and Ashotavan are located about 20 kilometers from the nearest Azerbaijani army positions on Nakhichevan’s border with Syunik. It was not clear how they managed to cross the heavily militarized frontier and advance deep into Armenian territory undetected. Armenia’s Defense Ministry said nothing in this regard.
The incident left some local residents worried about their safety. They want the police or the military to patrol their streets.
“We now always lock our gate and entrance door,” said Khachik Manucharian, a 70-year-old man living in Bnunis. “I don’t what could happen.”