Armenian Im Kayl (My Step) MPs Nazeli Baghdasaryan and Sofia Hovsepyan, at a Yerevan press conference today summing up their recent trip to Artsakh, said that they were told by Russian peacekeeper contingent Commander Rustam Muradov that the sixty-two Armenians taken prisoner by Azerbaijani forces in the village of Khtsaberd are in relatively good health and that they will shortly return to the village.

The MPs visited Artsakh from December 17-19 to follow up on reports that residents of the Shushi villages on Hin Shen and Metz Shen were under siege and that people in the Hadrut village of Khtsaberd had been taken prisoner.

Khtsaberd remained under the control of Armenian forces. On December 12, Azerbaijan launched an attack on the Hin Taghlar-Khtsaberd communities.

Sofia Hovsepyan said they reached the Shushi Hin Shen-Metz Shen settlement without any obstacles and were told by locals that some forty families live in Hin Shen and that there is no security problem. Representatives of the Russian military group were also stationed at the entrance to the village.

The MPs said there were only two Armenians in Metz Shen, probably due to the absence of Russian peacekeepers.

The MPs will leave for Artsakh again this weekend.