ArmInfo. On a working visit to Strasbourg, the Acting Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan met with Chairman of the ECHR Guido Raimondi.
The press service of the RA Foreign Ministry told ArmInfo that Mnatsakanyan, noting the value of cooperation with the ECHR, stated that multilateral platforms are especially important for small states from the point of expression of sovereign equality, and today, when this multilateral platform faces new challenges, promoting universal interests is becoming increasingly relevant.
He stressed that this system for the protection of human rights is exceptional and can only be truly effective in a functioning democracy.
The parties discussed the prospects for deepening cooperation between Armenia and the ECHR.
Mnatsakanyan spoke about the recent internal political processes in Armenia, touched on the Armenian position and approaches to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Representing the lawsuit against the citizen of the Republic of Armenia Karen Ghazaryan, who turned out to be in the territory of Azerbaijan under unexplained circumstances, Acting The Armenian Foreign Minister condemned the involvement in the judicial process of a person who has obvious health problems, which also violates international humanitarian law. According to him, this farce is an attempt to equate an innocent man with real killers.
Recall that July 15, Karen Ghazaryan was on the territory of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani side declared "preventing attempts at sabotage penetration", as well as the capture of a soldier Karen Ghazaryan (b. 1984). A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that Karen Ghazaryan does not serve and has never served in the army. However, this did not prevent Azerbaijan from declaring Ghazaryan a "saboteur" and starting a trial.
The trial started on November 6 in Ganja. Ghazaryan is accused of a crime against life and health, a crime in the sphere of economic activity, a crime against public safety, a crime against the foundations of the constitutional system and security of the state, a crime against management. The trial against Ghazaryan provoked indignation of Ghazaryan's relatives. In this regard, on November 17-18, Ghazaryan's relatives, as well as his fellow villagers blocked the road, demanding that the authorities return Karen Ghazaryan from Azerbaijani captivity.