The 17-year-old men, Karen Jahanrian and Andrei Gyagunts, reportedly went missing shortly after midnight in a pasture outside Aravus, a village in the Syunik province located just a few hundred meters from Azerbaijani army positions. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said that they “ended up in the territory of Azerbaijan as a result of getting lost in the area.”
“All necessary measures are being taken to determine the whereabouts of the citizens and ensure their safe return,” it added in a statement.
“The boys mounted horses to go and collect their [other] horses [grazing in the pasture] and bring them home,” said Argam Hovsepian, a member of the local council of the community comprising Aravus and six other villages. “It looks like they got captured.”
The NSS reported at 10 p.m. local time that the boys have been found and are now “in the Republic of Armenia.” “We will provide additional information later,” it said.
The mayor of the border community, Davit Ghulunts, also declined to say how they were found and brought back home.
Azerbaijani authorities did not confirm their detention or make any other statements on the incident.
The disappearance of the two local residents raised questions about security at that section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Tigran Abrahamian, an opposition lawmaker, blamed Armenia’s “military-political leadership” for it, saying that Armenian border troops there are positioned in a way that cannot prevent such incidents.