ArmInfo.The Armenian Deputy Minister of Defense Gabriel Balayan called the "absolute lie" information that Baku offered Yerevan to exchange captives. "As of 10:20am, November 8, the Armenian Ministry of Defense did not receive such a proposal," he said on November 8 in an interview with journalists.
According to him, traditionally, such proposals are received by the defense department through the channels of the International Committee of the Red Cross. "I don't have any idea what the matter may concern, taking into account the fact that there are no prisoners of war in either Armenia or Artsakh. We work quite transparently in this regard. If there was such an initiative, I assume that the ICRC which controls the situation , understands that this proposal is simply a statement for an internal or perhaps even an external consumer, which has no justification.
Yesterday in an interview with ArmInfo correspondent, the head of the communication programs of the ICRC delegation in Yerevan Zara Amatuni stated that the International Committee of the Red Cross is ready to act as a neutral intermediary in the issue of exchanging captives, subject to the consent of all interested parties. Meanwhile, the Acting Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan, in response to a question from journalists about a possible exchange of prisoners of war with Azerbaijan, stressed that the Armenian side does not have Azerbaijani prisoners of war. At the same time, he added that Armenia did not receive an official offer from Azerbaijan on the exchange of prisoners.
To recall, at present three citizens of the Republic of Armenia are in captivity in Azerbaijan - Arsen Baghdasaryan, Karen Ghazaryan and Zaven Karapetyan. There are two Azerbaijani saboteurs Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev serving their sentence in Armenia, as well as soldier Elnur Huseynzade, who also participated in sabotage activities.